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CGFTOIGHT DEPOSE 



PROGRESS 



BY 
GRANT MAUS 



ERRATA 

Page 70, line 13, word "gound" should be "ground." 
Page 74 ,line 7, word "equitable" should be "equable." 
Page 89, line 10, word "adject" should be "abject." 
Page 223, page 14, word "sackles" should be "shackles" 
Page 259, line 12, word "pogeny" should be "progeny." 



PRESS OF THE NATIONALIST WEEKLY 

OKLAHOMA CITY, U. -S. A. 

1Q17 






Copyright 1917 by 
GRANT MAUS 

All rights reserved, including that 
of translation into the foreign lan- 
guages, including the Scandinavian. 



r fv 



MAY 29 1917 

©C1.A4672&6 



To the teeming millions of American Men 
and Women who are going to align themselves 
with the Nationalist Party and thereby joy- 
ously take their rightful place in the sun, this 
work is humbly inscribed. 

G. M. 



FOREWORD 

For the sake of brevity, in "Progress" I have 
described what in effect would be a direct political 
revolution such as, if attempted in America, prob- 
ably would be in conflict with the constitution and 
laws of the United States. 

In America the same result may be accomplished 
by lawful means. In the great Nationalist move- 
ment it is proposed to strive for the election of 
such national and state officials only as may be 
necessary to lawfuly effect a complete revision of the 
Federal Constitution. 

The great principles of Nationalism are co-ordin- 
ate, concordant, compendious, compact, competent, 
comprehensible and commensurately essential, the 
success of each being dependent upon the adoption 
of all. One should study them wholly in that rela- 
tion. 



Today in America preparedness is a popular idea, 

and under the circumstances in which the world finds 

itself, thorough preparedness is a wise measure. 

Wherefore, let us loyally uphold our President through 

our country's dangers and difficulties, and whilst 

we are preparing for war, let us also prepare for 

life. 

GRANT MAUS. 



PREFACE 

To compare the planet Mars with the Earth is 
to find that Mars has a diameter of about five thous- 
and miles, while the diameter of the Earth is about 
eight thousand miles. That the surface of 
the Earth is about two and one-half times as 
great as the surface of Mars. But when it is con- 
sidered that much the greater part of the Earth's 
surface is covered by water; that other great areas 
are covered by perpetual ice and snow; and that still 
other large areas are occupied by many great moun- 
tain ranges which practically are not habitable; 
while on the other hand there are no great bodies 
of water on Mars like the oceans on the Earth, com- 
paratively little of that planet's surface being cov- 
ered by water; that the snow and ice at the poles 
of Mars are not perpetual, and cover only a small 
area compared with the area covered by perpetual 
snow and ice at the poles of the Earth ; and that the 



surface of Mars is comparatively smooth, there be- 
ing nothing on the planet to compare with the vast 
mountain ranges of the Earth, it may be readily 
surmised that the surface of Mars presents an area 
of habitable land probably somewhat in excess of 

the area of habitable land on the surface of the 
Earth. 

Of all the characteristics necessary to make a 
planet habitable, there is no insuperable difference 
between the essential characteristics of Mars and 
those of the Earth. The day on Mars is but a few 
minutes longer than the day on Earth. The year 
is nearly twice as long. The atmosphere is some- 
what more rarified and clearer than that of the 
Earth. The temperature is somewhat lower, but 
the greater length of the summer more than off- 
sets the lower temperature, for the growth of vegeta- 
tion and other forms of life. 

While it is true that the Earth is a planet some- . 
what larger than the planet Mars, yet for intelligent 
beings inhabiting the Earth to presume that out of 



all of God's great Universe they should be the only 
creatures created in His likeness, would be egreg- 
iously presumptuous, and the acme of egotism. 

For the convenience of the reader the chronology 
of this narrative is made to conform with the chron- 
ology of the Earth. 



AMERICA, 

My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of Liberty, 

Of thee I sing-; 
Land where my fathers died; 
Land of the pilgrims' pride ; 
From every mountain side 

Let Freedom ring. 

My native country! thee, 
Land of the noble free, 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills, 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God! to thee, 
Author of liberty ! 

To thee we sing, 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light. 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God, our King! 

— Smith. 



CHAPTER ONE 

At the beginning of the sixth century of the 
Christian era — World's time — there existed some 
fifteen independent states and more or less depend- 
ent colonies, somewhat sparsely populated by a race 
of fair-skinned, educated, and Christianized people, 
and lying in somewhat irregular form from north 
to south along the extreme western edge of civiliza- 
tion, — as civilization was established on the planet 
of Mars at the time — the country to the Westward 
comprising a vast territory, practically unexplored, 
and inhabited by numerous tribes of more or less 
savage aborigines. 

At about that time, in order to provide a more 
stable form of government for themselves, to pro- 
vide for their better protection against the encroach- 
ments of foreign nations, and in order to better 
provide for the participation of their citizens in the 
general advancement and progress of the races in- 

12 



PROGRESS 13 

habiting the planet, these fifteen states and colonies 
formed a confederation, declared their independence, 
and adopted a constitution under which to conduct 
their national government. 

The Constitution adopted provided that the na- 
tional government should be administered by a Presi- 
dent and a Vice-President, assisted by numerous of- 
ficials to be appointed by the President. That the 
law-making authority should be vested in a Con- 
gress composed of two Houses. The one House de- 
signed to have a limited membership to be elected 
by the several state legislatures. The other to have 
a membership based on population, — a membership 
ever increasing in numbers as the population of the 
country increased, — its members to be elected by a 
direct vote of the people. Provided for the appoint- 
ment and organization of certain federal courts. 
Prescribed certain qualifications necessary to entitle 
residents of the country to the rights of citizenship. 
Prescribed certain qualifications for the adminis- 



14 PROGRESS 

trative officials and for the members of the Congress, 
and set forth certain rules for their election or ap- 
pointment. Authorized the Congress to declare war, 
to coin money, to borrow money on the credit of the 
government, to levy certain taxes, and to do numer- 
ous other things of a legislative character. Author- 
ized the several states and colonies of the confedera- 
tion to each promulgate its own constitution; to or- 
ganize and maintain its own government; and to 
enact and administer its own laws; such state con- 
stitutions and laws to be not in conflict with the 
constitution and laws of the Nation. Numerous 
other matters of more or less importance were pro- 
vided for at length, the whole constituting the con- 
federation a republic. 

At the time of its adoption this Constitution was 
believed to embody the broadest and most liberal pro- 
visions for popular government which had ever been 
granted to any people. And this was true to a de- 
gree. But time proved a number of its provisions, 



PROGRESS 15 

together with the blind worship by the people, of 
the instrument itself, to have been so grievously 
unwise as to have engendered and fostered a number 
of evil systems which were destined to result in 
the ultimate ruination of the government whose pro- 
tection had enabled them to develop to a dangerous 
state of iniquity. 

Immediately after its organization the national 
government assumed sovereignty over an extent of 
the territory to the westward, which, with the area 
covered by the original states and colonies, embraced 
an area some two thousand miles from north to south, 
by some four thousand four hundred miles from 
west to east. 

For a number of years, while a superabundance 
of enormously rich, glorious, God-given natural re- 
sources were available to the people, the Nation pros- 
pered exceedingly. It successfully conducted several 
wars, both foreign and domestic, being victorious in 
every instance. The population increased rapidly, 



16 PROGRESS 

and as it increased the frontier of civilization was 
ever advanced westward, until eventually it encom- 
passed the entire territory under the sovereignty 
of the Nation. 

From time to time, as the population increased 
and civilization advanced, new states were organized 
and admitted to the confederation on equal terms 
with the original states, until eventually the whole 
territory came to be embraced within a grand sis- 
terhood of states to the number of fifty, and the 
population had increased to the enormous number 
of one hundred and fifty million people by the end 
of the first quarter of the seventh century of the 
Christian era. 



CHAPTER TWO 

During the early years of the government's his- 
tory its affairs were ably, honestly, and conscien- 
tiously administered in the interest of the whole of 
the people. True patriotism and enlightened states- 
manship were thoroughly appreciated and duly re- 
warded with such honors as the people had it in their 
power to bestow. But after a century and a quarter 
had elapsed, the people awoke to a realization of the 
fact that many things were seriously and grievously 
wrong with their affairs, and pausing to study their 
condition they soon discovered that during the years 
when they had been so busily engaged in their mad 
scramble to take every possible advantage of the 
vast natural resources at hand, they had neglected 
to study and scrutinize their governmental affairs as 
carefully and thoroughly as their best interests re- 
quired, with the result that a number of shamefully 
iniquitous systems had been engendered and imposed 
upon them. Systems which, if continued in effect, 

17 



18 PROGRESS 

would inevitably utterly despoil them of the glorious 
fruits of the stupendous effort they as a people had 
maintained throughout their national existence. 

The political system; the land-owning system; 
the monetary system; the credit system; the banking 
system ; the insurance system ; the industrial system ; 
the taxation system; the court system; and others of 
possibly less importance, had, in the comparatively 
short period of a century and a quarter, grown to 
such colossal proportions and acquired such tremen- 
dous power as to have become beyond the power of 
the constituted government to control. 

These systems had become so exacting and so all- 
absorbing in their demands as to have almost lit- 
erally transformed a Nation of supposedly intelligent, 
free, and independent citizens, into a seething, toil- 
ing, struggling mass of creatures, all busily engaged 
in gleaning tribute in countless guises for the sole 
benefit of the aforesaid systems. 

Landlords were of necessity forced to demand 



PROGRESS 19 

extortionate rental rates in order that they might 
meet the exactions of the systems for taxes, for in- 
terest, for insurance, for materials, etc., etc., etc. 
Merchants were of necessity compelled to price their 
wares at more than double their actual worth in 
order that they might meet the exactions of the sys- 
tems for materials, for rent, for taxes, for interest, 
for insurance, etc., etc., etc. Manufacturers, though 
many of them were securing their materials and 
labor at a moderate cost, also were of necessity 
forced to demand very high prices for their products 
in order that they also might meet the exactions of 
the systems for interest, for rent, for insurance, for 
taxes, etc., etc., etc. Millions of farmers and stock- 
men, though producing prodigious crops and count- 
less droves of livestock, and for the most part re- 
ceiving very high prices therefor, yet were so out- 
rageously plundered for taxes, for interest, for rent, 
etc., etc., etc., as to have but a modicum of their 
product left for their own benefit. Even the profes- 
sional classes were of necessity compelled to charge 



20 PROGRESS 

extortionate rates for their services in order that 
they too might meet the exactions of the systems for 
rent, for taxes, for interest, for insurance, etc., etc., 
etc. 

The power of the systems to levy tribute had 
become so absolute and their methods of extortion 
so insidious that none could escape them. They 
levied tribute upon all alike. Upon the fortunate 
and the unfortunate. The robust in health and the 
invalid. The infantile and the aged. The widow 
and the orphan. The halt, the lame, the blind, and 
the nimble and bright-eyed. The only limit to their 
extortion was the capacity of the individual to pay. 
Their shameful extortions became so universal and 
so inexorable that even though an individual might 
be too poverty-stricken to be a subject for direct taxa- 
tion, to borrow money or obtain credit, to carry 
insurance, or to become involved within the courts, 
yet out of every dollar expended for his necessities, — 
whether he had earned the dollar or obtained it from 
charitable sources, — certain considerable portions 



PROGRESS 21 

were arbitrarily, though it might be indirectly, taken 
to gratify the insatiable demands of each of the nefar- 
ious systems. The portions thus arbitrarily taken were 
so numerous and of such large proportions that very 
little of the commodity purchased could be obtained 
for what little of the dollar was left. 

At the same time the farmers, the mechanics, the 
laborers and other producers of actual values, not 
only were required to satisfy the outrageous demands 
of the iniquitous systems for the products of their 
toil, but also were required to sustain the vast mul- 
titude of creatures whose sole vocation in life was 
the plundering of the producers by means of count- 
less devices, and passing the plunder on into the 
ever open and capacious maws of the systems. 

The deplorable result of all this was that in their 
strenuous efforts to obtain something for themselves, 
the strife amongst the people was so vigorous, con- 
stant, and wearing as to consume most of their pro- 
duct in the struggle ; whatever remained being always 
absorbed by the ultimate beneficiaries of the systems. 



22 PROGRESS 

For the existence of those vicious systems no 
particular individual or no particular class seems to 
have been responsible. They seem, to have been a 
spontaneous growth on the life and customs of the 
Nation, like the poisonous vine in the forest, which, 
springing out of the ground, fastens its tentacles 
upon the bark of the giant oak, and year by year 
gradually advances its shoots and creepers — always 
with their attendant tentacles — up the body of the 
tree and out along all of its limbs, branches, and 
twigs, until, in time, its rank, nauseous foliage en- 
compasses that of the tree and completely enshrouds 
it, shutting out the light and heat of the sun, and 
thus ultimately accomplishing the death of the tree; 
after which the vine itself dies and it and the tree 
together fall into decay, the vine seemingly having 
had no purpose in life other than to accomplish the 
death of the tree. 

And so with the vicious systems. Given sufficient 
time, they were absolutely certain to completely 
enshroud the Nation with their noxous foliage, shut 



PROGRESS 23 

out the light and warmth of God's love, and so result 
in the Nation's inglorious death and decay. 



CHAPTER THREE 

After only a century and a quarter of existence 
as a Nation ; when the supply of desirable public land 
had been exhausted; when nearly all of the vast 
natural resources of the country had been absorbed 
by certain private interests, the sole beneficiaries 
of the systems; when the reign of so-called big- 
business had become supreme, and it had become an 
extremely rare occasion when an individual could go 
forth and wrest a fortune, or even a respectable 
home, from legitimate commerce or industry, or from 
nature; the people paused to take stock of their pub- 
lic affairs, and they found: What? 

They found, first: That whereas during the 
early years of their existence as a Nation their po- 
litical system had been one of moderate proportions; 
tractable; responsive to the will of the people; rea- 
sonably effective; comparatively inexpensive; and 

affording positions of great honor, worthy of the best 

24 



PROGRESS 25 

citizens of the country ; now, owing to the great mul- 
tiplicity of people, of states, of counties, of munici- 
palities, etc., etc., it had grown into a colossal, un- 
wieldly, cumbersome, ineffective, enormously expen- 
sive and dangerous institution, irresponsive and ir- 
responsible to the people; harboring within its vast 
and varied portals a seething, fetid mass of political 
deceit, falsehood, personal and sectional selfishness, 
rabid partisanship, envy, jealousy, bribery, chicanery, 
incompetence, debauchery, general corruption, and 
crime; contaminating with loathsome filth every 
individual enticed within, making it almost wholly 
unworthy of the consideration of any genuinely clean- 
minded, honorable citizen. 

They found themselves to have been deliberately 
misguided into a deplorable condition of rabid and 
blind partisanship, which condition had enabled cer- 
tan comparatively small classes to transform their 
republic into an almost absolute oligarchy. Those 
certain small classes in effect choosing practically all 
candidates for important public office throughout the 



26 PROGRESS 

country, and merely permitting the people to retain 
the privilege of choosing between the candidates 
submitted to them. That in order to increase its 
strength, extend its influence and reward its hench- 
men, this rotten political oligarchy had foisted upon 
the people the enormous burden of maintaining in- 
numerable, unnecessary, useless, and superfluous of- 
fices. 

They found that though they would not for a 
moment have entertained a proposal to change their 
government into a monarchy, yet at every recurrent 
biennial election they were investing thousands of 
very ordinary politicians with all of the important 
prerogatives enjoyed by the most autocratic of an- 
cient kings, by delegating to them authority to enact 
laws for their government; to enact laws taking 
human life ; to enact laws under which millions of 
men were imprisoned; to enact laws requiring mili- 
tary service ; and to levy taxes upon the people, their 
necessities, their business, their homes and other 
property. v 



PROGRESS 27 

They found their political system, in its col- 
ossal entirety, to embrace such an immense number 
of elective official positions, and to afford so many 
seductive opportunities for graft, as to have enticed 
vast numbers of men to abandon useful vocations in 
life and take up politics as a profession, with the 
result that their local, state, and national political 
campaigns, having become sorely overcrowded with 
hordes of overhungry and unscrupulous politicians, 
had degenerated into frequently recurring seasons 
of rabid personal vilification and character assassina- 
tion; from out of the nauseous vapors of which the 
poor, gasping and much befuddled citizen was ex- 
pected to emerge and intelligently select his National, 
State and local officials from a huge roster containing 
a host of names representing candidates of whose 
besmirched character, and of whose deficient qualifi- 
cations he could have but a very dim, a most hazy, 
and a necessarily limited knowledge. 

They found that though under this system all 
public officials having legislative authority were 



28 PROGRESS 

elected largely, and sustained entirely, by the pro- 
ducing classes, yet they could not be either cajoled, 
influenced or compelled to enact measures of any 
very material benefit to those classes. 

They found that this system, with its almost 
constant succession of caucuses, primaries, conven- 
tions, campaigns, and elections, was uselessly, shame- 
lessly and sinfully wasting eons upon eons of the 
people's time to no good purpose; and that it con- 
stituted one of the monstrously evil systems which 
were steadily, persistently and relentlessly crushing 
all of the comfort, peace, happiness and joy out of 
the lives of the people ; and which were rapidly trans- 
forming a supposedly intelligent, free and indepen- 
dent citizenry, into a nation of cringing, supplicat- 
ing, whimpering and abject slaves and criminals. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

They found, second: That under the private- 
ownership-of-land system which they were sustain- 
ing, although the supply of desirable public land at 
a merely nominal price had only recently been ex- 
hausted, yet less than one-half of the people resident 
within the country were able to own the land upon 
which they lived. That owing to the extortionate 
rates imposed by the systems upon the land-owners, 
for taxes, for interest, for insurance, for materials, 
etc., etc., the landlords were in turn compelled to 
exact as rent a very large portion of the earnings of 
the multitudinous tenant class. That literally mil- 
lions of the unfortunate tenant class, though for 
the most part honest, energetic and industrious, yet 
were compelled by the outrageous exactions of the 
systems, not to live, but merely to exist, in quarters 
utterly unfit for human habitation. 

They found that of the homes owned by the oc- 

29 



30 PROGRESS 

cupants a very large part were heavily mortgaged, 
and that the extortionate charges levied by the sys- 
tems upon those homes, for taxes, for interest, for 
insurance, etc., etc., etc., were equivalent to extor- 
tionate rental rates. Thus was the supposedly for- 
tunate home-owner forced into the unhappy posi- 
tion of virtually paying rent on his or her own prop- 
erty. 

They found the existence of this evil system to 
have resulted in the concentration of myriads of peo- 
pie at certain centers called cities and towns, where 
the land was plotted into woefully small tracts, not 
with the view of promoting wholesome or happy con- 
ditions of life, but for the sole purpose of artificially 
further enhancing the largely factitious values of the 
land. That it had imposed upon the people of the 
cities and towns the necessity for maintaining at 
enormous cost countless unnecessary, narrow, dirty, 
gloomy, ugly and unwholesome streets and alleys. 
That it had imposed upon them the unnecessary 
misery of living amidst the preposterous aggregations 



PROGRESS 31 

of unlovely, unwholesome, inconvenient, nondescript 
and inartistic business structures and residential 
sections existing throughout their cities and towns. 

They found the existence of this system to have 
engendered a serious condition of antagonism between 
the landlord and the tenant classes. A condition of 
antagonism which prevented the landlord class from 
maintaining its properties in as good condition as 
the health, comfort, peace and happiness of the people 
demanded; and which prevented the numerous ten- 
ant class from following man's natural inclination to 
devote much of his leisure time to improving and 
beautifying his home. That the existence of this con- 
diton was responsible for the absolute loss to the 
poor of incalculable ages of their time, and conse- 
quently was a most serious obstacle to progress in the 
home life of the great masses of the people. 

They found that this system was occupying the 
time and absorbing the energies of a vast multitude 
of bright, energetic and industrious real estate dealers, 
traders, brokers, speculators and keepers of the vol- 



32 PROGRESS 

uminous and cumbersome system of records of land- 
titles; all busily engaged, year in and year out, buy- 
ing, selling and trading land, from hand to hand, 
yet adding not a single acre to the area of the planet's 
surface, and all supported at an enofmous cost to 
the producing classes. 

They found the existence of this system to have 
brought upon them a deplorable condition whereun- 
der millions of acres of conveniently and pleasantly 
situated fertile land were held by the owners prac- 
tically in idleness, while at the same time thousands 
upon thousands of poor but worthy and enterprising 
citizens, inspired with a laudable ambition to estab- 
lish homes for themselves, were suffering unspeakable 
privations and indescribable hardships in their vain 
but persistent attempts to coax or compel rough, thin, 
arid and semi-arid lands to become productive; many 
failing utterly despite their almost superhuman ef- 
forts, and the vast majority of the others succeed- 
ing only in wresting a most precarious existence 
from the refractory and reluctant soil. 



PROGRESS 33 

They found this system to be responsible for 
much of the envy, jealousy, malice, hatred, unrest, 
antagonism, contention, strife, worry, woe, misery 
and general unpleasantness of life. That it was 
responsible for a prodigious amount of interminable 
and costly litigation in the courts, and that as a 
system it was the direct source of an utter and enor- 
mous waste of human endeavor. 



CHAPTER FIVE 

They found, third: That the closely restricted 
monetary system which had been imposed upon them 
by their atrocious political oligarchy, was almost 
wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of the 
commerce of the country for a medium of exchange. 
That though their progress, their prosperity and , 
their happiness were wholly dependent upon their 
having a very large and constant supply of stable 
money, money in such large volume that it could not 
be either expanded or contracted at the will of any 
particular interest, class, or section, yet they were 
supporting this iniquitous system which was provid- 
ing but a few paltry dollars of circulating medium 
per capita ; the almost absolute control of which had 
been usurped by a few unscrupulous individuals who 
were diligently using it as an effective instrument 
for the exploitation and plunder of the people. 

They found their monetary system with but a 
34 



PROGRESS 35 

single standard, based upon a certain precious metal. 
A metal having scarcely any practical value except 
for ornamental purposes. A metal of comparatively 
rare occurrence, and usually found only in remote 
localities and in very small quantities; the supply 
not being sufficient to constitute more than an in- 
finitesimal part of the medium of exchange neces- 
sary to the progress, the prosperity, the peace, the 
comfort, the happiness or the welfare of the people, 
cr even to the very life of the Nation. 

They found this system to be providing money 
in such a parsimonious and niggardly manner that 
its whole volume comprised but a few dollars per 
capita. That the control of those few dollars hav- 
ing become centered within certain so-called interests, 
those interests could, and often did, so contract the 
volume of money in circulation among the people as 
to effect almost complete cessation of progress and 
improvement for years at a time. That under this 
constricted system literally millions of the people 
were, throughout the generations, toilsomely and 



36 PROGRESS 

miserably passing their entire lives without ever 
having possessed sufficient actual money to provide 
themselves with the ordinary comforts of life. That 
the existing woeful deficiency and the ever fluctuat- 
ing supply of money were a most serious and dan- 
gerous obstacle to human progress. 



CHAPTER SIX 

They found, fourth: That the injurious inade- 
quacy of their absurd monetary system had necessi- 
tated the adoption of a monstrous credit system 
which had grown to stupendous proportions and 
had become a national juggernaut. 

They found the predominance of this system to 
have involved the people and their government in a 
vast pot-pourri of indebtedness of inconceivably col- 
ossal proportions. That innumerable communities 
had become involved in debt beyond all hope of re- 
demption. That neither a private nor a public en- 
terprise of any considerable magnitude could be un- 
dertaken without being distressingly handicapped by 
an accompanying burden of interest-bearing indebted- 
ness. That generation after generation of people 
had been coming into existence, each exerting an 

enormous effort toward the progress of their race; 

37 



38 PROGRESS 

each contributing a very large share of its earnings 
to this system ; each adding a little more indebtedness 
here and a little more there; and each eventually 
passing out of existence, leaving an increased burden 
of indebtedness as an heritage to succeeding genera- 
tions. 

They found one out of a large number of evil 
effects of the existence of this system to be that a 
community, either small or large, though it might 
be possessed of an abundance of all material neces- 
sary to the purpose, that though it might have resi- 
dent within its confines hundreds or even thousands 
of industrious but idle men who were eager and anx- 
ious to obtain work, and whose families were suffering 
serious want owing to their lack of employment, yet 
it could not possibly undertake any considerable pub- 
lic improvement without first issuing interest-bearing 
bonds wherein it must needs pledge itself to pay 
tribute to the credit system for a certain long period 
of years. Any person of ordinary intelligence will 
readily understand that the existence of this condi- 



PROGRESS 39 

tion would naturally operate as a most serious ob- 
stacle to the progress of the Nation. 

They found that the mortgage and collection 
laws which had been enacted at the behest of this 
system were steadily and quite rapidly depriving the 
people of their homes and their property. That this 
system; this heinous thing! could, if necessary, call 
all of the vast forces of the government to its assis- 
tance in dispossessing an aged, decrepit, poverty- 
stricken widow of her wretched home and its meagre 
furnishings, although throughout her long and toil- 
burdened life she may have practiced the most rigid 
economy and self-denial, and at all times contributed 
her all too meagre savings to the merciless and ex- 
acting demands of this monster. 

They found the control of this system to have 
become very closely concentrated within the same 
interests which were in control of the monetary and 
other systems. That those interests were diligently 
and persistently using it as another of their instru- 
ments for the gleaning of the rich fruits of the indus- 



40 PROGRESS 

try of the producers, and that its monstrous exactions 
were achieving the inevitable absorption of the sub- 
stance of the people; more and more of whom, as 
generation succeeded generation, were constantly be- 
ing driven into abject poverty, ultimate desperation, 
desperate crime, and utter ruin. 

They found the operation of this system, through- 
out its innumerable ramifications, also was occupying 
the time and absorbing the energies of myriads of 
energetic and industrious men and women, without 
contributing a single visible or material thing toward 
the welfare of the people, and that consequently it 
was the source of another enormous waste of human 
endeavor which the race should not endure. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

They found, fifth: That in their preposterous 
banking system they were maintaining an absolutely 
non-productive institution which was standing squarely 
between capital and industry, at all times taxing both 
for all they could stand, — often more — and needlessly 
driving many worthy enterprises into bankruptcy 
and utter ruin. That like a numerous band of or- 
ganized freebooters, it operated all along the numer- 
ous highways over which capital and industry must 
proceed together to accomplish progress, compelling 
tribute from every wayfarer, and destroying all who 
would not or could not satisfy its extortionate de- 
mands. 

They found the whole tendency of this system 
was to concentrate the public and private funds 
of every community within the hands of a very 
few individuals who were in control of the banks, 

41 



42 PROGRESS 

and who still further concentrated the funds of the 
country by carrying huge balances at a few great 
financial centers, where they fell under the control 
of the same unscrupulous interests which were in 
control of the monetary, the credit and other sys- 
tems, thus aiding materially in enabling those inter- 
ests to outrageously exploit and plunder the people, 
and monopolize the enormous resources of the coun- 
try. 

They found that prior to and during the fre- 
quently recurring periods of great financial stress, 
when industry naturally was most in need of funds, 
it was the policy of this system to curtail its loans, 
contract the volume of circulating money, and in- 
crease its cash reserves by withholding money from 
circulation, thereby creating periods of so-called hard 
times, which, at every recurring period, enabled it 
and the other systems, under the protection of the 
law, and using the law as a means to their end, to 
virtually steal the enormously valuable equities of 
myriads of unfortunate debtors. Periods of so- 



PROGRESS 43 

called hard-times during which the profitable business 
enterprises of thousands of industrious people were 
utterly ruined. Periods of so-called hard-times when 
literally millions of the people of the producing classes 
were unable to obtain profitable employment; and 
periods of so-called hard-times during which the 
progress of the Nation was brought to a halt, and 
the prosperity of the people vanished. 

They found this system, although for many years 
it had exercised an absolute and arbitrary control 
over the moneys and credits of the country, yet was 
fundamentally so miserably and wretchedly weak that 
upon occasion when it became expedient for the 
government to withdraw certain of its deposits, 
amounting to the comparatively insignificant sum 
of less than one dollar per capita of the Nation's pop- 
ulation, the whole damnable system was threatened 
with an utter collapse, and in order to avert the 
catastrophe, it induced the government to forego the 
withdrawal of its funds and to impose an additional 
tax upon its citizens instead. That notwithstanding 



44 PROGRESS 

the fact that it as a system had been plundering 
them shamefully for generations, yet it was so woe- 
fully weak and inadequate that it could not even sup- 
ply the funds necessary to move a single year's crops 
to market, without the assistance of the government. 

They found that this system not only was not 
content with having imposed itself upon the people, 
but it needs must exert its monstrous and most bane- 
ful influence upon the politics of the country, at all 
times striving for, and often accomplishing, the 
enactment of laws for the increase of its power over 
the affairs of the people. 

They found the many units of this system almost 
invariably to be occupying luxurious quarters in the 
best business locations in the many cities, towns and 
villages throughout the country — quarters vastly su- 
perior to anything the people who were compelled 
to support them could afford for themselves. 

They found this system to be an institution 
whose glittering temptations seduced myriads of 
excellent people into the commission of falsehood, 



PROGRESS 45 

fraud, theft, larceny, burglary, embezzlement, forgery, 
suicide, murder, and many other crimes; thereby 
adding very largely to the immense number of con- 
victed criminals at all times held imprisoned within 
the numerous penal institutions. That though 
throughout the generations it had occupied the time 
and absorbed the energies of millions of the Nation's 
most energetic and industrious people, yet through- 
out its long existence it never had actually pro- 
duced a single penny's worth of anything of actual 
use or value; and that it was responsible for a pro- 
digious and shameful waste of the peoples' time, 
energy and industry to no good purpose, and without 
material benefit to the general public welfare. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

They found, sixth: That although from time 
immemorial they had been preached to and lectured 
to from literally millions of pulpits and platforms, 
and taught in other millions of schools, against 
the evil of gambling in any form, yet they had, 
without serious objection, permitted to be imposed 
upon them the most flagrant; the most far-reaching; 
the most destructive; and the most demoralizing, 
sure-to-win-for-the-operator and sure-to-lose-for-the- 
player, gambling device ever conceived by the mind 
of man — the so-called Insurance system. A sure- 
thing gambling system whose stakes and wagers 
vastly exceeded those of all other gambling schemes 
combined. A sure-thing gambling system which was 
constantly and always busily working its innumer- 
able tentacles among the people of all classes, and 

day by day, week by week, month by month, and 

46 



PROGRESS 47 

year by year, taking from them as a people, some 
two to five dollars of good money in premiums, for 
every single dollar it was returning to them in 
benefits. A wicked and vicious gambling system 
which had attained so dangerous a degree of power 
and influence over the people as to enable it to in- 
duce many so-called Ministers of the Gospel to openly 
and boldly advocate it in God's houses of worship. 
"May God have mercy on their souls." 

They found that though as a people they were 
at all times paying an enormously heavy tribute to 
this system, yet whenever a war or other contingency 
arose which threatened danger of serious loss to it, 
the system would arbitrarily cancel policies of in- 
surance, and demand premium rates which were pro- 
hibitive. That notwithstanding its enormous extor- 
tions, it was a well known fact that should a catas- 
trophe occur which would involve the system in a 
loss at all commensurate with the sum of its enor- 
mous extortions, it would ignominously collapse and 
refuse to pay. 



48 PROGRESS 

They found the control of this system too had 
been usurped by the same powerful interests which 
were in control of the monetary, the credit, the bank- 
ing, and other systems. That it, too, was being 
diligently and persistently used as an effective instru- 
ment for the spoliation of the people and of the 
country, and that it constituted another of the mons- 
trous factors whose whole tendency was to gather 
all of the vast products and resources of the country 
for the sole benefit of the aforesaid interests. 

They found that this system also was occupying 
the time and sinfully wasting the energies of a 
myriad of the Nation's most energetic and indus- 
trious citizens to no good purpose, but, on the con- 
trary, to the very serious detriment of the general 
public welfare. That it was the direct source of 
much crime and much expensive litigation in the 
courts, and was directly responsible for much of the 
want, privation, woe and misery suffered by the 
people. 



CHAPTER NINE 

They found, seventh: That the vast aggrega- 
tions of capital centered within the aforementioned 
interests by the foregoing systems had enabled those 
interests, under the guise of so-called big-business, 
to impose upon the people the most iniquitous indus- 
trial system ever conceived in the human mind. A 
monstrous industrial system which had so insidiously 
enslaved the people that it was exacting extortionate 
toll in labor, or its equivalent, from every man, 
woman and child resident within the country. 

They found the ownership and control of this 
system to have become so closely centralized within 
the same interests which were in control of the 
monetary, the credit, the banking, the insurance and 
other systems, that those interests had come to own 
or control practically every industrial enterprise 

worth mentioning in the country. That having se- 

49 



50 PROGRESS 

cured control, the interests had organized the var- 
ious industries into monstrous trusts, for the purpose 
of monopolizing and fixing the prices upon both the 
products and the necessities of the people. A state 
of monopoly which resulted in the almost complete 
subjugation of individual enterprise, making it al- 
most impossible for an enterprising individual, or 
any number of enterprising individuals, of moderate 
means, to undertake an industrial enterprise of any 
considerable importance, with any hope of success. 
A condition whereunder such few important enter- 
prises as were undertaken by venturesome individuals 
almost invariably became so enmeshed within the 
tentacles of the trusts as to eventually be either 
absorbed or destroyed by them. 

They found the numerous trust units of this 
system to have attained such gigantic proportions, 
and to have become so overwhelmingly powerful as 
not only to have almost completely destroyed indi- 
vidual opportunity, but to be co-operating with the 
other noxious systems in nullifying the will of the 



PROGRESS 51 

people, and in destroying the usefulness of their 
cherished institutions, by exerting a most -baneful 
influence upon the political and economic affairs of 
the country. Through corrupt practices in elections; 
through the corruption of the National Congress; 
through the corruption of the numerous State Leg- 
islatures; through the corruption of the numerous 
local, state and national executive officials; and 
through the corruption of the innumerable courts, 
was the power of the people usurped, and the high 
purpose of many of their institutions set at naught. 

They found these trust units to have become 
so all-powerful as to enable them for long periods 
of time to practically paralyze any particular indus- 
try. A power they ofttimes exercised, thereby fre- 
quently destroying the enormously valuable equities 
of myriads of small investors, and forcing into 
financial ruin millions of men and women of moder- 
ate or small means. 

They found that on occasions these trust units 
would indulge themselves in riots of extortion which 



52 PROGRESS 

resulted in long periods of high-cost living, during 
which many of the most common comforts of life 
were, in effect, actually taken out of the homes, off 
the bodies, and off the tables of a vast majority of 
the people. Surely an intelligent people could not 
reasonably be expected to tolerate such a condition 
indefinitely. 



CHAPTER TEN 

They found, eighth: That they were suffering 
the imposition of a most absurd system of taxation, 
under which they were being unmercifully and out- 
rageously taxed, either directly or indirectly — in 
many cases both — upon everything they possessed: 
from the homes in which they lived, to the dogs 
they kept as pets; and from their musical instru- 
ments, to their wash-tubs. Upon everything they 
used: from their swaddling cloths, to their burial- 
shrouds; and from their pepper and salt, to their 
beef -roast. And upon everything they did: from 
the exercise of their right of franchise, to the prac- 
tice of a trade or profession or business pursuit. 
In many cases the rate of taxation on homes was 
equivalent to charging the owners rent on their own 
property. Many commodities were taxed at rates 
equal to, and some even in excess of, the actual 

value of the commodities themselves. 

53 



54 PROGRESS 

They found that while the people living on one 
side of many roadways and imaginary lines were 
being outrageously taxed for the support of un- 
necessary municipal, county and state governments, 
their neighbors just across the roadways and imag- 
inary lines were being as outrageously taxed for 
the support of separate municipal, county and state 
governments which were merely duplicates of the 
others. 

They found their taxation system to be so mul- 
tiplex, complex, ponderous and laborious that a very 
large portion of its exactions were consumed in its 
administration. 

They found themselves the pitiable victims of 
a monstrous taxation system whose inexorable exac- 
tions were becoming ever and ever more burden- 
some and unendurable as generation succeeded gen- 
eration. The sum of the taxes collected directly from 
the people was something frightful to contemplate, 
while those collected indirectly from them had grown 
beyond any possibility of computation. A deplorable 



PROGRESS 55 

condition which was inevitable in view of the con- 
tinued rapid growth of the evil systems, in power 
and influence over the affairs of the people, and in 
view of the ever increasing number of people in- 
volved. 

They found that even though, through excessive 
taxation, they would at times succeed in accumulat- 
ing a surplus of money in their national treasury, 
yet upon occasions when the revenues of the govern- 
ment would unexpectedly but decidedly decline and 
fall below the requirements of the government for 
its current expenditures, the government, instead of 
making proper use of the existing surplus to meet 
the emergency, would deposit it with the banking 
system for a nominal rate of interest in order to 
further strengthen and fortify that system, and 
would meet the emergency by levying an additional 
burden of taxation upon the people. 

In seeking for the cause of all this needless and 
well-nigh intolerable burden of taxation, the people 
found that through the long continued practice of 



56 PROGRESS 

chicanery, subterfuge, and corruption, they had been 
almost entirely displaced by the systems, in the con 
trol of their affairs and their welfare. That their 
monstrous political organization, in all its vastness, 
had been transformed by the other systems into an 
overwhelming instrument for the plundering of the 
people by means of an intricate and colossal hodge- 
podge of direct and indirect taxation. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

They found, ninth : That the enforcement of the 
countless exactions practiced upon the people by 
the numerous systems, and the punishment of the 
myriads of unfortunate creatures driven to despera- 
tion and crime by those exactions, had afforded an 
excuse for foisting upon the people a monstrous and 
preposterous court system, which was constituted a 
tremendously powerful instrument for the protection 
of its fellow-systems against the people, and for the 
reaping of their gruesome harvest of human misery. A 
court system which, while aiding the other systems en- 
ergetically in forcing upon the people conditions where- 
under hundreds of thousands of industrious men and 
women ofttimes found it impossible to obtain profit- 
able employment, and thus were irresistibly forced 
into a sad condition of penury and want, had sunk 

so low in the scale of human justice as to be con- 

57 



58 PROGRESS 

stantly condemning thousands of men to prison for 
no particular offense other than that of being found 
without employment and without money, frequently 
making the sending of men to prison the occasion 
for jocularity. A court system maintained at an 
enormous cost to the people, in time, in energy, and 
in money, yet a court system which had usurped 
certain of the important functions supposed to have 
been vested in the people. A court system which 
had boldly boosted itself to a position upon a pedestal 
far above the people, and which had incongruously 
assumed a high degree of dignity which its narrow 
personal, sectional, and class prejudices; its lack 
of common honesty; its lack of honor; its lack of 
fairness; its susceptibility to social, political, and 
financial influences; and its woeful lack of ability, 
made it wholly impossible to maintain. 

They found this system to be following methods 
of procedure which were intricate, indirect, inde- 
cisive, cumbersome, superfluous, obsolete, and so 
enormously expensive that none but the wealthy. 






PROGRESS 59 

could carry a cause to its higher branches. That 
its partiality to the rights of property and to the 
right of the systems to plunder, as against the 
rights of humanity; and its almost fixed policy of 
practically absolving the wealthy from punishment, 
even for the most serious crimes, while at the same 
time punishing the poor severely for all degrees 
of crime, was rapidly developing a state of acrimon- 
ious class distinction and most bitter and mutual 
class hatred. A condition extremely dangerous for 
any Nation. 

They found this system to have become outrag- 
eously corrupt and unfair, and that a multitude of 
its branches had degenerated into mere wretched 
instruments for the persecution and plunder of 
myriads of the unfortunate victims of the abominable 
credit system. That its favoritisms, its jealousies, 
its corruption and its incompetency tended to encour- 
age, promote, and increase, rather than remedy, 
litigation and crime. That notwithstanding its 
enormous cost to humanity, it not only was inef- 



60 PROGRESS 

fectual as a remedy for crime, but that, on the con- 
trary, having taken upon itself its position as the 
willing and powerful instrument for the enforce- 
ment of the outrageous extortions imposed upon the 
people by the other systems, it was constantly aid- 
ing in mercilessly driving myriads of people into 
wretched poverty, ultimate desperation and vicious 
crime. 



CHAPTER TWELVE 

They found, tenth: That the visible and tan- 
gible result of the whole miserable incongruous jum- 
ble was that a very few mistaken and over-ambitious 
people were rapidly growing injuriously, dangerously, 
and sinfully rich, while countless millions were as 
rapidly being shamelessly, dangerously, and wickedly 
pauperized. 

And they found that all of these systems were 
merely monstrous things. Things probably designed 
in hell for the sole purpose of inflicting misery and 
evil upon humanity; things without personality; 
things without body; things without heart; things 
without mind; things without conscience; things 
without spirit; things without soul; things absolutely 
and entirely irresponsible to God or man; and crea- 
tures possessing not a single attribute of things 
human or Divine. Creatures not immortal, but en- 

61 



62 PROGRESS 

tirely dependent upon the grossly dumb submission 
of the people for their perpetuity. 

And they found! And They Found!! AND 
THEY FOUND!!! GOD!!!! They found so much 
that was unfair; so much that was unjust; so much 
that was wrong; so much that was corrupt; so 
much that was unnecessary; and so much that was 
evil, that to describe it in all of its nauseous details 
would take years of time, and would require whole 
libraries of books to contain. 

Such then were the institutions which governed 
the people, ruled their lives, and ordered their des- 
tiny. Such were the institutions over which the 
people were presumed to wax enthusiastic. Such 
were the institutions whose existence was erron- 
eously supposed to cultivate a national patriotic spirit 
capable of the utmost self-abnegation and self- 
sacrifice. What wonder, then, that in truth the spirit 
of patriotism within the people had been quenched 
to the alarming degree that upon an occasion of im- 
pending foreign war, less than five per centum of 



PROGRESS 63 

the men subject to military duty could be induced 
to voluntarily enter the military service of the coun- 
try. 

It was almost past belief that a nation of indus- 
trious people ; a nation of resourceful people ; a nation 
of self-reliant people ; a nation of intelligent people ; a 
nation of cultured people ; a nation of patriotic people ; 
a nation of independent people; a nation of free- 
born people; a nation of people whose ancestors had 
suffered the very throes of hell in order to establish 
their liberty and to provide their posterity with the 
most munificent government which had ever emanated 
from the mind of man; would calmly, patiently, and 
dumbly submit to the bestial usurpation of their 
sublime heritage by institutions which could so easily 
have been destroyed as could those systems. And 
neither would they have thus submitted had not the 
methods of the systems been so indirect, insidious 
and subtle that it took many years for the people to 
discover what a monstrous outrage was being per- 
petrated upon them. 



64 PROGRESS 

The systems had so usurped the vast resources 
of the country and of the people that Men; intelli- 
gent Men; industrious Men; skilled Men; Men the 
fathers of children; freeborn Men; independent Men; 
Men the possessors of immortal souls; Men made 
in the likeness of God; would toilsomely delve in the 
ground for, denude the forests of, and take from 
the waters, raw materials which they would as 
toilsomely manufacture into the innumerable useful 
articles known to commerce, and in turn use those 
articles in the toilsome construction and equipment 
of innumerable buildings; in the toilsome construc- 
tion and equipment of innumerable and extensive 
railways; in the toilsome construction and equipment 
of innumerable ships, docks, factories, etc., etc., etc., 
and when those buildings, railways, ships, docks, fac- 
tories, etc., etc., etc., had been completed and 
equipped in every detail, those intelligent Men; those 
freeborn Men; those independent Men; those Men 
the fathers of children; those Men! Those Men!! 
THOSE MEN!!! would humbly and supinely sur- 



PROGRESS 65 

render to the systems the results of all their skill, 
their toil, and their labor; in all their magnificence; 
in all their completeness; in all their perfection; 
and in all their effectiveness ; in return for barely suf- 
ficient so-called money to enable them to eke out a 
meagre and ofttimes wretched existence during the 
days, weeks, months, and years of their actual toil. 

Great Shades of their ancestors who established 
their Liberty! If that were not abject slavery, what, 
in the name of all that is good, could abject slavery 
have been? 

Very much the same situation prevailed with 
respect to the vast numbers of people engaged in 
manufacture, in merchandising, in the arts and 
sciences, in the professions, in agriculture, etc., etc., 
etc, Almost all surrendering the results of their 
toil, their skill, and their enterprise, and passing into 
old age — those who attained to it — the subjects of 
charity. 

Millions of the more intelligent and better edu- 
cated men and women of the country, recognizing the 



66 PROGRESS 

utterly hopeless and deplorable condition of the men, 
women and children who submitted themselves to 
toil, had recourse to the professions and business 
pursuits as a means of gaining a livelihood, until, 
in time, those vocations became so sadly overcrowded, 
and the merciless exactions of the systems became 
so overwhelming that, in the absence of adequate 
returns from their efforts, myriads of them were 
compelled by their urgent necessities to fall back 
into the ranks of the toilers, thus sorely overcrowd- 
ing those ranks also, and developing an alarming 
condition of unemployment, low wages, and high-cost 
living. 



CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

And for another three-quarters of a century 
that long-suffering, sorely-over-burdened, and shame- 
fully-over-patient people bore up under those un- 
necessary and tremendously harmful impositions. 
The people of all classes of society were universally 
desperately sick of the colossal, indescribable, shock- 
ing, and nauseating mass of poverty, misery, wicked- 
ness and crime which had been brought upon them 
by the insatiable greed of the systems, and which 
was spewing its horribly malodorous saliva over 
them preparatory to swallowing them bodily, as a 
people, and yet — to their everlasting shame be it 
said — they dumbly submitted themselves as more 
or less willing victims. 

During the early years of this period great 
numbers of people constituting the so-called middle 

class were still in possession of what in the aggre- 

67 



68 PROGRESS 

gate amounted to a huge amount of property, the 
major part of which, however, being heavily en- 
cumbered with interest-bearing indebtedness. The 
people belonging to this numerous class for many 
years were deceived by the political leaders of the 
time into the erroneous belief that their welfare 
and the welfare of the interests which were profiting 
by the existence of the systems, were co-dependent 
upon the continuance of the systems ; and so they 
were thus easily inveigled into aligning themselves 
politically with those interests. But as time pro- 
gressed the greed of the systems grew, until what 
at first had been extortion, naturally developed into 
practical confiscation. The result being that the 
wealth of the country became more and more closely 
concentrated under the ownership of the interests, 
until, by the end of this seventy-five year period, 
the great middle class had been almost completely 
despoiled of its property. Less than ten per centum 
of the people being longer able even to own the 
homes in which they lived. 



PROGRESS 69 

It was true that by some hook or crook, or ex- 
ceptional turn of good fortune, an occasional in- 
dividual would succeed in wresting a comfortable 
fortune from the strife, and would be considered 
to have accomplished success. But then, too, because 
they were comfortably housed and well fed, many 
sheep may have believed successful the goats used 
to lead them to destruction in abattoirs. 

Toward the end of this period, when this poor, 
deluded middle class finally awoke to the fact that 
notwithstanding its dumb belief in, and foolish sup- 
port of, the systems, it had all along been squeezed 
by them for vastly more booty than could possibly 
be wrung from the so-called lower class, and that 
it as a class, having been deprived of its wealth, 
its business and its professions, had itself been 
forced down into the ranks of the lower class, 
there was a tremendous wailing and gnashing of 
teeth. But alas! and alack! the awakening had been 
deferred entirely too long; the systems having by 
this time attained to such absolute power there was 



70 PROG EES.S 

absolutely no hope of securing any material ameliora- 
tion of conditions through the instrumentality of the 
constituted government. 

During the whole of this seventy-five year period 
the people, hoping against hope, vainly strove, 
through the agency of their preposterous political 
system, to obtain some relief from the grievous and 
intolerable wrongs which were being imposed upon 
them. During this long and intense struggle of the 
people to obtain relief, first one political party then 
another would rise to popularity and power, only to 
become vitiated and fail utterly and miserably. On 
rare occasions a little gound would be gained against 
the systems in one direction or another, only to 
result in proportionally heavier exactions being im- 
posed by them in some other direction. Every 
measure which promised any material relief for the 
people must needs be made pregnant with provis- 
ions of special privilege to the systems before it could 
be enacted into law. The monstrous greed of the 
systems, like a cancerous growth on a human body, 



PROGRESS 71 

would become more and more malignant whenever 
molested in its destructive career. 

Innumerable talented, capable, and worthy men, 
through the advocacy of numerous supposed remed- 
ial policies, obtained the confidence of the people and 
rose to popularity and power, only to find the systems 
so strongly entrenched behind the Constitution, the 
law, and the blind partisanship of the people, that 
they could accomplish no efficacious mode of deliver- 
ance for the masses through the agency of the 
monstrous political system, which had long since ar- 
rived at the age of senility, and which already was 
in an advanced state of decay. 

The effect of the people using their political 
system as amunition in making an attack upon the 
other systems, was equivalent to the effect of mak- 
ing an attack upon a strong citadel by bombarding 
it with a vast number of very bad eggs. It did 
no material harm to those within the citadel, but 
it did disclose the malodorous, unsightly, and use- 
less condition of the amunition. 



72 PROGRESS 

The political system had become so well estab- 
lished as a prominent though fawning member of 
the family of systems, that to expect it to do any- 
thing seriously detrimental to any of its sister sys- 
tems, at the behest of the people, was about as rea- 
sonable as to expect a big, ferocious she-wolf to drive 
her hungry whelps from a fallen prey upon hearing 
a whine from the victim. 



CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

In certain sections of the country, where rain- 
fall was excessive, there frequently existed a great 
superabundance of water. Numerous large rivers 
and other streams periodically rose to flood stage, 
overflowed the adjacent country, destroyed many 
lives, and ruined property of immense value, mak- 
ing vast areas of fertile land unavailable to the peo- 
ple and useless because of this excessive quantity of 
water, and necessitating constant and huge expendi- 
tures of money and labor in more or less futile and 
somewhat indifferent attempts to confine the waters 
to the channels of the streams. 

In other sections of the country there was 
scarcely any rainfall and a sad dearth of water 
caused other vast areas of otherwise fertile land 
to remain practically desert and almost useless. 

As the population of the country and of the 

73 



74 PROGRESS 

planet continued to increase, and as the ownership 
of land became more and more closely concentrated 
within the systems, an ever decreasing proportion of 
the people could obtain access to land, and it became 
more and more apparent to all thinking people that 
the adoption of some comprehensive scheme for the 
more equitable distribution of water over the coun- 
try and over the planet was rapidly becoming im-f 
perative. But owing to the deplorable condition 
which had developed as the inevitable result of the 
rule of the systems, nothing could be accomplished 
in this direction beyond a few comparatively puny 
irrigation and drainage projects which affected a 
few small localities only. 

It was found that to undertake anything in 
the nature of a general and comprehensive scheme 
of water distribution was entirely beyond the ca- 
pacity of any private enterprise which could be 
conceived of, and that for the government, with its 
closely restricted monetary and iniquitous credit sys- 
tems in effect, to undertake the matter upon as broad 



PROGRESS 75 

and comprehensive a scale as the exigencies of 
the case demanded, would plunge the Nation into 
an enormous debt, the payment of fixed interest 
charges upon which would become so overwhelming 
as to place the matter entirely outside the range of 
possibilities. 

Being densely overshadowed, fearfully overawed, 
and heavily handicapped by their outrageous credit 
and woefully inadequate monetary systems, neither 
the government nor the people could undertake even 
so comparatively small a matter as a general and 
comprehensive scheme for the permanent improve- 
ment of the public highways of the country with- 
out assuming a colossal mass of indebtedness, the 
payment of interest upon which would become bur- 
densome beyond endurance. 

The progress of the country and of the people, 
though great in some respects, yet was nothing like 
so great as should have been accomplished by a 
people who, like they, were the heirs to all of the 
knowledge and progress accumulated by mankind 



76 PROGRESS 

throughout the ages, and who were endowed with 
a superior intelligence, a matchless energy, and a 
superabundance of natural resources. 

The government and the people were at all times 
heavily handicapped by the systems which controlled 
them. Uinder the rule of the systems a great deal 
more of the people's time and effort was necessarily 
wasted in idleness or useless and non-productive vo- 
cations, than was devoted to the accomplishment of 
actually useful and beneficial results. It was an 
indubitable fact that, if applied to the accomplishment 
of many sorely needed public improvements, the vast 
sum of human time and human energy so shamefully 
and sinfully wasted upon the systems would, in the 
course of a very few years, have developed to a high 
state of perfection the vast and sublimely beautiful 
natural Paradise which, on the contrary, was being 
so shamelessly despoiled by the systems. 

Here was a grand country; a glorious coun- 
try; a sublime country; a country Divinely endowed 
with limitless natural resources. And here was a 



PROGRESS 77 

numerous and intelligent people; an educated people; 
an energetic people; an industrious people; a people 
openly boastful of their achievements and their pro- 
gress ; yet a country and a people so enormously over- 
taxed and so unmercifully overburdened by the inex- 
orable exactions of the systems which ruled them, 
that despite the enormous sum of human energy 
they had expended during several centuries, they 
had been unable to effect a single physical change 
on the surface of the planet, which, if left uncared 
for, the ravages of so comparatively short a period 
of time as five hundred years would not almost 
completely obliterate. Even some of the primitive 
races of the country had left as durable an impress 
as that. 



CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

Toward the end of the seventy-five year period, 
when the insatiable greed of the various systems had 
almost entirely absorbed the substance of the peo- 
ple; when the political system had become so enorm- 
ously colossal in proportions, and so nauseous in its 
corruption that it was tottering blunderingly to its 
fall; when the people had awaked to the fact that 
to continue the systems in effect would inevitably 
lead them to a fate similar to the frightful fate which 
already had overwhelmed the masses of people com- 
posing the older civilizations of the planet; when 
the crisis in the grave matter of water distribu- 
tion had arrived and it had become positively neces- 
sary that enormously extensive work in that connec- 
tion be undertaken immediately; and when it was 
realized that in the face of these unfortuitous cir- 
cumstances the government stood almost helpless, 

78 



PROGRESS 79 

the people became desperate and panic-stricken and 
vainly besought their leaders to devise some com- 
prehensive and definite plan for their deliverance 
from the impending catastrophe. 

The literature of the time fairly teemed with 
matter pointing out and bitterly denouncing the many 
evils which existed within the governmental struc- 
ture and within the other systems in effect. Many 
measures represented as promising relief were ad- 
vocated, and a few of these were enacted into law; 
but all were so thoroughly pregnant with provisions 
of special privilege as to redound to the further 
benefit of the systems, instead of to the general 
public welfare. 

Out of all the vast fund of learning, experience, 
knowledge, and sagacity supposed to have been pos- 
sessed by the leaders of the people at the time, none 
seemed capable of amalgamating into a concrete, 
practical, and effective whole, the great number of 
excellent ideas which were advanced as possible rem- 
edies for the evil conditions existing. 



80 PROGRESS 

An example of the utter folly, the puerile 
futility, and the shameful duplicity of the methods of 
the time: A certain political party, sailing falsely 
under the colors of democracy, upon an occasion 
when it was in power, instead of adopting some meas- 
ure to relieve the people of their enormous burden 
of taxation, enacted a so-called income tax law, rep- 
resenting that it would in a large measure take the 
burden of taxation off the common people and place 
it on those having large incomes. As the basis of all 
incomes rests within the common people, — the pro- 
ducers, — the effect of this act was that those subject 
to the tax arbitrarily raised their margin of profit 
in a sum sufficient to meet the tax, adding a con- 
siderable margin for safety, and so easily shunted 
the burden, largely increased in weight, back upon 
the people. 

Another example: That same political party, 
recognizing in a small degree the great injury be^ 
ing worked upon the people by the banking sys- 
tem, made a feint at curing the evil by adding two 



PROGRESS 81 

large and enormously expensive organizations to it, 
thus largely increasing its power over the affairs 
of the people, and adding enormously to its weight 
as a burden. How ridiculous to pretend that an 
evil could be remedied by adding to it and increasing 
its power. 

A; woefully sad condition of unemployment de- 
veloped throughout the Nation. Literally millions 
of industrious men and women were unable during 
prolonged periods to secure employment, and were 
thus compelled to eke out a most precarious ex- 
istence, while still more millions could obtain env- 
ployment only at such low wages as would barely 
suffice to maintain them during the days, weeks, 
months and years of their actual employment. The 
surplus products of the people being entirely ab- 
sorbed by the systems, they could save nothing what- 
ever in store for the years of their decrepitude, and 
as a result of this wretched condition fully ninety- 
five per centum of the people who attained to it 
were passing into old age either wholly, or in a 



82 PROGRESS 

very large measure, dependent upon either public 
or private charity. A sad state of affairs indeed 
for the most beneficently endowed Nation on the 
face of the planet. An actual, living, and visible 
state of affairs which existed as an incontrovertible 
refutation of the frequent and persistent boasts of 
prosperity, and promises of good times coming, which 
were constantly being advanced by the votaries 
of the systems in order to deceive the people into 
further toleration. 

The tremendous struggle of the great masses 
of the people to maintain life, and of the few more 
fortunate ones to accumulate great wealth, had be- 
come so strenuous, so intense, and so all-absorbing 
that myriads of people seriously questioned whether 
or not life was worth the incessant effort necessary to 
sustain it. True happiness, beyond the early years 
of childhood, became practically unknown. 

It is almost unbelievable, yet nevertheless true, 
that up to and during this seventy-five year period 
the vast aggregations of beings commonly known 



PROGRESS 83 

as humanity, and populating the several nations of 
the planet, would submit themselves to constant 
and arduous toil, and stringent and depressing self- 
sacrifice, and furthermore would, on occasions, 
dumbly submit millions of their choicest males to 
be led forth to sanguinary battle against like num- 
bers of their kind, there to be cruelly slaughtered 
in vast numbers, like sheep in a shambles (the usual 
method of slaughtering sheep was gentle compared 
to their method of slaughtering men), all merely to 
gratify the selfish aspirations of an infinitesimal 
number of over-ambitious individuals. 

Being outrageously driven at a killing pace from 
day to day, week to week, month to month, and year 
to year, the people had recource, for mental relaxa- 
tion, to shockingly wicked amusements, which, in 
time, came to be almost the only thing which could 
create sufficient excitement to relieve their minds 
even temporarily of the painful contemplation of 
their deplorable conditon. And this habitual resort 
to wicked amusement, coupled with their griefs, their 



84 PROGRESS 

woes, their agonies of mind and soul, and their in- 
tense struggle for existence, eventually led them 
into a state of mind wherein they forgot honesty, 
they forgot honor, they forgot truth, they forgot 
justice, they forgot charity, they forgot love, they 
forgot humanity, they forgot religion, they forgot 
God. 

The industrial, commercial, financial and political 
institutions of the country, though still boldly pre- 
senting brazen fronts of assumed respectability, yet 
had degenerated into seething, struggling masses 
of duplicity, falsehood, misrepresentation, deceit, 
chicanery, graft, bribery, corruption, and general 
criminality. 

Suicide, murder and innumerable other horrible 
crimes became common. Race suicide became a fixed 
habit among the people of all classes. Myriads of 
the daughters of the Nation were driven to vile sin 
and awful prostitution, and untold millions of its 
sons to shameful vice and vicious crime. Prison after 
prison, and asylum after asylum, were builded and 



PROGRESS 85 

quickly filled with myriads of miserable, wretched and 
unfortunate creatures. The streets of the cities and 
towns at all times were alive, and on festal occasions 
almost literally lined, with thousands upon thousands 
of ill-clad children of the poor, manfully striving to 
sell newspapers or a few trivial articles, in order to 
obtain a few pennies with whichi to eke out the 
family larder or the family rent; with thousands of 
decrepit, deformed, crippled, and otherwise physically 
helpless creatures asking alms that they might not 
starve; and with charitably inclined persons begging 
alms for the poor in general. All being the inevitable 
sadly crushed and pitiable crumbs fallen from the 
hideous feast of the evil systems. 

Even the innumerable churches, owing to the 
increasing poverty of the people resulting in numerous 
defections from among their membership and con- 
sequent lack of support, had recourse to methods far 
beneath the dignity of the Christian religion in order 
to procure the funds necessary to their sustenance. 
Sincere Christianity and devout worship were waning 



86 PROGRESS 

with shocking rapidity and were about to be aban- 
doned by the people. 

The glorious spirit of patriotism which had been 
so strong in the hearts of the people during the early 
years of their Nation's existence, and which was 
the bulwark from behind which the iniquitous sys- 
tems had sallied so boldly to the awful conquest, be- 
came displaced by a most bitter and mutual class 
hatred. All classes of the people, in a very large 
measure, lost their confidence in, and respect for, their 
government and the officials who administered it ; for 
their courts and court officials ; and eventually a state 
of political chaos came to exist, and a reign of rabid 
anarchy became imminent. 

And still those monstrous systems plundered 
on; forming a monstrous anarchy of unrestrained 
wealth and usurped power; holding themselves above, 
and giving little heed to, any law, either Divine, or 
natural, or moral, or man-made; imposing an inex- 
orable, pitiless, damnable deluge of extortion upon 
the halt, the lame, the blind, the widow, the orphan, 



PROGRESS 87 

the aged, the decrepit, the unfortunate as well as the 
fortunate ; seemingly having been either utterly obliv- 
ious, or dangerly careless, of all consequences. It is 
inconceivable that the individuals, interests, or classes 
which were profiting by the continuance of the sys- 
tems, could be so grossly covetous, so grossly vicious, 
so grossly cruel, so grossly short-sighted and so 
grossly ignorant as to wantonly drive an intelli- 
gent, independent and courageous people to such in- 
tolerable desperation. 



CHAPTER SIXTEEN 

And all of the foregoing in a country of vast 
and sublime God-given resources, and imposed upon 
an intelligent, educated, and brave people. A coun- 
try literally loaded, and a people thoroughly imbued, 
with limitless possibilities for good, yet shamefully 
driven by the cruel force of the evil systems to many 
things atrociously bad. A country wherein, and a 
people whereon, God had bestowed with a lavish 
hand innumerable provisions for the uplifting of hu- 
manity and the elimination of class distinction, yet a 
country and a people grievously seduced by evil sys- 
tems which trod mankind into the dust and debased 
it, and which cultivated and developed class distinc- 
tion and class hatred beyond all reason and beyond 
endurance. A country Divinely endowed with every 
essential necessary to constitute it a veritable Para- 
dise, yet a country so overrun, so monopolized and 

88 



PROGRESS 89 

so plundered by the systems as to have been trans- 
formed into a veritable hell for many millions of 
people. A people Providentially provided with the 
high degree of intelligence, energy, industry, cour- 
age and fortitude necessary to develop their Para- 
dise to a glorious state of perfection, yet a people 
outraged by systems which despoiled them of the 
glorious fruits of many generations of arduous toil, 
and which forced untold millions of them into a 
miserable condition of adject poverty, wretched de- 
pravity, and race degeneracy. 

The aggregate sum of human resources abso- 
lutely wasted on the systems was of such appalling 
magnitude that no Nation, however resourceful it 
might be, could long sustain the frightful loss and 
continue to maintain a respectable standard of life, 
or even survive as a Nation. And more than nine- 
tenths of the people of this Nation were Sinking. 
Sinking. Ever more rapidly Sinking. 

Oh, the shame of it! the shame of it! To 
think that an intelligent people would for years tol- 



90 PROGRESS 

erate institutions which they knew made their 
methods and customs of life woefully wrong and 
sadly inadequate. Institutions which they knew to be 
but modern developments of like institutions which 
already had brought the older civilizations of the 
planet to the very verge of hell, and which were 
making life unsatisfactory in the extremest sense. It 
was a foregone conclusion that such an intelligent 
people, once awakened to a full comprehension of the 
evils which beset them, would not long perpetuate in- 
stitutions so dangerous. 

Nor did they; for, fortunately in this instance, 
nothing human is perpetual, and as the systems 
were merely evil conceptions of human minds, their 
doom was inevitable, and their rule eventually came 
to a definite and quite sudden close. Collectively, 
their career might aptly be likened to that of a 
huge snowball, which, having been released at the 
top of a pack-snow covered incline of extraordinary 
length and with an infinitely enormous open caldron 
at the bottom maintained at an infinitely high tern- 



PROGRESS 91 

perature by the accumulated wrath of many genera- 
tions of outraged humanity, gathered unto itself as 
it traveled, everything with which it came in con- 
tact; only to have its whole conglomerate mass in- 
stantly converted into a harmless vapor upon finally 
plunging into the caldron. The vapors thence arising 
being broken up into clouds by the gladsome shouts 
of the emancipated multitude, and drifting away to 
beneficently redistribute their substance throughout 
the land from whence it came. 



Part op 

HAIL, COLUMBIA. 

Hail, Columbia ! happy land ! 

Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band! 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 
And when the storm of war was gone, 
Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 

Let independence be our boast, 

Ever mindful what it cost ; 

Ever grateful for the prize, 

Let its altar reach the skies. 

Firm, united, let us be, 

Rallying round our liberty ; 

As a band of brothers joined, 
Peace and safety we shall find. 

Immortal patriots! rise once more! 

Defend your rights, defend your shore: 
Let no rude foe, with impious hand, 
Let no rude foe, with impious hand, 

Invade the shrine where sacred lies 

Of toil and blood the weUrearned prize. 

While offering peace sincere and just, 
In Heaven we place a manly trust, 
That truth and justice will prevail, 
And every scheme of bondage fail. 

— Hopkinson. 



92 



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

At the expiration of the seventy-five year per- 
iod hereinbefore referred to, which occurred about the 
beginning of the eighth century of the Christian 
era, — World's time, — when a number of the great 
foreign nations, owing to prolonged and inconceiv- 
ably frightful and destructive wars, had suffered 
physical and financial losses so vast as to exceed 
the comprehension of the human mind, and had 
become involved in debt in sums so enormous as 
to exceed any possibility of repayment, thereby ne- 
cessitating a radical reconstruction, along entirely 
new lines, of the monetary and credit systems of 
all of the nations on the planet. When numerous 
great railway systems and other vast industrial or- 
ganizations throughout the country were bankrupt. 
When numerous great industries were stagnated and 
myriads of individuals connected therewith were 

93 



94 PROGRESS 

financially ruined. When the monetary and banking 
systems were demonstrated to be wholly inadequate 
to the Nation's needs. When all of the people of 
certain vast sections of the country were seriously 
threatened with utter financial ruin because of the 
simple lack of a sufficient volume of money to enable 
them to carry a single crop through a temporary 
emergency. When the condition of the great masses 
of the people of the country had become extremely 
desperate and positively intolerable. When the peo- 
ple had been almost completely despoiled of their 
substance. When the splendid patriotism of the people 
had been almost entirely destroyed. When there was no 
longer any hope of obtaining any substantial relief 
through the agency of their monstrous political sys- 
tem. Then, at that crucial moment, a new patriotic 
political organization, — 'The Nationalist Party," — was 
launched, and advanced candidates for President and 
Vice-President on a platform pledging them, if 
elected, to proclaim a certain new Constitution im- 
mediately upon their induction into office; to ap- 



PROGRESS 95 

point a temporary National Commission to be com- 
posed of forty-nine citizens from all sections of the 
country, who, like themselves, should hold office only 
pending the election and qualification of permanent 
officials as provided. 

While it was evident the provisions of the pro- 
posed Constitution would largely curtail the political 
and legal professions, yet as fully ninety per centum of 
the followers of those professions had been unable to 
accomplish more than to eke out a precarious exis- 
tence ; as practically all were sufficiently patriotic and 
public spirited to hold the welfare of their race as 
paramount to their fictitious individual interests ; and 
as the adoption of the proposed Constitution assured 
the immediate inauguration of a reign of peace and 
permanent prosperity for all, they went to the sup- 
port of the Nationalist Party in vast numbers. 

Likewise, while it was evident the provisions of 
the proposed Constitution would largely curtail or de- 
stroy the business of many of those engaged under 
the banking, the credit, the insurance, and land- 



96 PROGRESS 

owning systems, those so engaged, realizing that 
for generations — and that almost without exception — 
they had been vigorously striving in the capacity of 
mere vassals of powers higher up, comparatively few 
of them being permitted to prosper, and they too 
holding their patriotism and the general public wel- 
fare as paramount to their imaginary individual in- 
terests, went to the new Party in vast numbers. 

The great masses of farmers, stockmen, artisans, 
and other toilers and producers; the trades-people, 
the manufacturers, and many others throughout the 
country; realizing the provisions of the proposed 
Constitution would give them free access to land 
whereon to establish comfortable, permanent homes, 
and prosperous industrial and business enterprises; 
would forever relieve them of the overwhelming 
burden of sustaining the enormously expensive though 
needless systems; and would instantly elevate them 
to a gloriously independent state which would enable 
them to fully enjoy all of the innumerable benefits 
resulting from their toil and their industry, also 



PROGRESS 97 

went to the support of the new Party with great 
unanimity. 

Many even of those who had been the sole di- 
rect beneficiaries of the systems, having become 
thoroughly nauseated with the shocking preponder- 
ance of poverty, wickedness, crime, and general 
human wretchedness; understanding the provisions 
of the proposed Constitution would afford safe pro- 
tection to reasonable wealth, thereby protecting them 
in the enjoyment of accumulated wealth to a reason- 
ably liberal degree without their becoming an ana- 
thema to all men; and would forever avert the im- 
pending and imminent cataclysm of confiscation, de- 
struction, slaughter and wretched human depravity, 
proved their patriotism and race loyalty to be superior 
to their avarice, and supported the new Party with 
much enthusiasm. 

The new Nationalist Party very quickly at- 
tained to a most astounding degree of popularity, 
and its candidates were successfully elected by over- 
whelming majorities at the first election in which 



98 PROGRESS 

it participated. Having been duly elected and in- 
ducted into office, the President proclaimed the new 
Constitution and immediately proceeded to enforce its 
provisons. 



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

The new Constitution provided in effect that all 
government, of whatsoever description, and all po- 
litical divisions theretofore existing throughout the 
country, should forthwith cease. 

That thereafter the sole and only governmental 
authority would be vested in the People, and be ad- 
ministered by them through the agency of a Na- 
tional Government, to consist of a President, a Vice- 
President, and an administrative body composed of 
seven sub-commissions of seven members each, to be 
known as the National Commission. 

That in lieu of all previously existing political 
divisions, the country should be divided into seven 
electoral districts of approximately equal territorial 
area. Said electoral districts to be definitely outlined 
and permanently established immediately by the Na- 
tional Commission, subject to the approval of the 

President. 

99 



100 PROGRESS 

That as soon as practicable after the establish- 
ment of the seven electoral districts, a general elec- 
tion should be held throughout the country for the 
election of a President, a Vice-President, and forty- 
nine Commissioners. 

That preparatory to the first election of officials, 
the people of the country at large should, by direct 
primary election, select candidates for President and 
for Vice-President, and the people of each of the 
seven electoral districts should, at the same time 
and in the same manner, select candidates for the 
seven Commissioners to be elected from each of the 
districts. 

That in the first election following the primary 
election, the candidates for President and Vice- 
President receiving the greatest number of votes from 
the people of the country at large should be declared 
elected President and Vice-President, respectively; 
and the seven candidates for Commissioner receiving 
the greatest number of votes from the people of 
their respective electoral districts should be declared 
elected Commissioners from their respective districts. 



PROGRESS 101 

That so soon as the duly elected Commissioners 
should meet, they were, under the direction of the 
Vice-President, to be divided into seven classes of 
seven members each; each class to consist of one 
Commissioner from each of the seven electoral dis- 
tricts; and the classes so formed should then cast 
lots to determine which class should serve terms of 
one year, which two years, which three years, which 
four years, which five years, which six years, and 
which seven years. 

That the President and the Vice-President should 
be elected for terms of seven years each, and that the 
Commissioners should be elected for like terms, ex- 
cept those forty-two Commissioners first elected who 
drew shorter terms by lot as provided. 

That after the first election the seven electoral 
districts should hold simultaneous annual elections 
for the purpose of choosing one new Commissioner 
from each district, and that every seventh year a 
President and a Vice-President should be elected by 
the people of the country at large. 



102 PROGRESS 

That no person should be eligible to the office 
of President or of Vice-President who was not a 
native born citizen, or who was not an actual bona 
fide resident of the country at the time of election. 

That no person should be eligible to the office of 
Commissioner who was not a native-born citizen of 
the country, or who was not at the time of election 
an actual bona fide resident of the electoral district 
from which elected. 

That no person, having once been elected Presi- 
dent or Vice-President, should be eligible for re-elec- 
tion to either of those offices, or for election to any 
other office; but after the expiration of three years 
from the end of the term for which elected, should 
be eligible for appointment to the civil or military 
service upon the same conditions as prescribed for 
all other citizens. 

That no person, having once been elected Com- 
missioner, should be eligible for re-election to that 
office, nor for election to any other office; but after 
the expiration of three years from the end of the 



PROGRESS 103 

term for which elected, should be eligible for appoint- 
ment to the civil or military Service upon the same 
conditions as prescribed for all other citizens. Ex- 
cept that those thirty-five Commissioners who, hav- 
ing been elected in the first election held under the 
new Constitution, and who in casting lots drew 
terms of five years or less, should be eligible for 
re-election to one full term as Commissioner. 

That all civil officials and employes of the Gov- 
ernment, other than the President, the Vice-President 
and the forty-nine Commissioners, should be em- 
ployed only under civil service rules to be promulgated 
from time to time by the National Commission, and to 
require special qualifications and diligent service 
upon the part of all employes; to provide liberal 
compensation for service and for injuries sustained; 
and to further provide for old age and service re- 
tirement with pay. 

That each and every official and employe of the 
Government, whether elective, civil service, or mili- 
tary, should be subject to peremptory recall by a 



104 PROGRESS 

majority vote of the people of the community af- 
fected by the service of the official or employe con- 
cerned, as provided for at length in the Constitu- 
tion. 

That the President should have authority to ne- 
gotiate treaties with foreign governments, but that 
treaties so negotiated should not become effective 
until approved by the National Commission. 

That all of the acts of the National Commission 
should be subject to the approval of the President, 
who should have the power of veto. 

That the Vice-President should act in the ca- 
pacity of presiding officer over the sessions of the 
National Commission, whose sessions should be gov- 
erned by parliamentary usages. But he or she 
should have no vote in such sessions except in case 
of a tie, when he or she should cast the deciding 
vote. That in the event of the death or other dis- 
qualification of a President, then the Vice-President 
should act in the capacity of President pending the 



PROGRESS 105 

election of a President by the National Commission 
as provided. 

That the National Commission, sitting as a 
whole, should have authority to provide for the na- 
tional defense; to adopt, provide for, and issue na- 
tional coinage and currency in such denominations 
as would best suit the convenience of the people, 
and in such volume as would fully meet the gov- 
ernmental expenditures necessitated by the provisions 
of the Constitution ; to adopt rules and regulations for 
the government of the civil, military, and naval 
service, and to establish rates of compensation for 
those engaged therein; to undertake and complete 
such public works as would tend to improve the 
country and the conditions of life for the people; 
to establish rates to be charged for the use of land 
and for the use of all public utilities and public con- 
veniences, etc., etc., etc. 

That for the consideration of matters of general 
import in the administration of the Government; 
for the appropriation of moneys; the creation of 



106 PROGRESS 

revenues, etc., etc., etc., the 'National Commission 
should sit as a body of the whole, and its acts should 
be governed by a majority vote of its members. But 
for the more efficient administration of the Govern- 
ment the National Commission, under the direction 
of the Vice-President, should be divided into seven 
Sub-commissions of seven members each — each Sub- 
commission to consist of one member from each elec- 
toral district — and the President should assign the 
various departments of the Government, in approxi- 
mately equal proportion as to volume of work in- 
volved, for immediate administration, to the several 
Sub-commissions, which should at all times be under 
the direction of the President. 

That by a three-fourths vote of its members the 
National Commission could, for cause, suspend a 
President or a Vice-President, pending the submission 
of the question of his or her recall to a vote of the 
people at the next succeeding regular annual elec- 
tion. 

That in the event of the suspension of a Presi- 



PROGRESS 107 

dent or Vice-President as provided, the National 
Commission should, by a majority vote of its mem- 
bers, elect a duly qualified citizen not a member of 
the National Commission, to succeed the official so 
suspended, for the rest of the term of such suspended 
official. Provided, however, that should the recall 
measure in the case fail to receive the favorable 
vote of a majority of all the votes cast upon the 
question, throughout the country, then the term of 
the successor elected by the National Commission 
should forthwith cease, and the suspended official 
be reinstated immediately after the result of the 
election on the question should be definitely ascer- 
tained. 

That by a two-thirds vote of its members the 
National Commission could, for cause, suspend any of 
its members, pending the submission of the ques- 
tion of his or her recall to a vote of the people of 
the electoral district from which he or she may have 
been elected, at the next succeeding regular annual 
election. That in case of the suspension of a member 



108 PROGRESS 

of the National Commission as provided, the office 
should remain vacant until the question of recall 
and the election of a successor could be decided at 
the next succeeding regular annual election. 

That neither the National Commission, nor any 
of its sub-divisions, should ever enact any law, or 
levy any tax, license, or fee, except as provided in 
the Constitution or in amendments thereto which 
might be adopted by a majority vote of the people 
as provided; or adopt any measure which would 
involve the Government or the people in debt; but 
should, from time to time, establish and promulgate 
rules and regulations for the conduct of war ; for the 
efficient conduct of the civil service; for the efficient 
conduct of the public schools and educational in- 
stitutions; for the efficient conduct of penal and 
eleemosynary institutions; and for the construction, 
extension, improvement, operation and maintenance 
of all public improvements and public utilities. That 
all rules and regulations so established and promul- 
gated should provide relatively equal opportunities 
for all citizens, and for all sections of the country. 



PROGRESS 109 

That all legislative authority under the Govern- 
ment should be vested in the people. That there 
should be no written law other than the (Constitu- 
tion. That the Constitution should not be altered 
or amended except that, if a measure should be duly 
initiated by the people in accordance with the rules 
for initiating measures as prescribed at length, and, 
being duly submitted to a vote of the people at any 
regular annual election, should receive the favorable 
vote of a majority of all of the votes cast upon the 
question throughout the country, then the measure 
so adopted should become a part of the Constitution, 
and should supersede any part thereof in conflict 
with the provisions of the measure. 



CHAPTER NINETEEN 

That in order to facilitate the administration 
of government, each post-office throughout the 
country should have assigned to it so much adjacent 
territory as it could conveniently serve without in- 
fringing upon the territory of neighboring post-offices, 
such assignments of territory collectively to embrace 
all of the territory within the jurisdiction of the 
Government. 

That each post-office should have assigned to it 
so many employes of the civil service as the Na- 
tional Commission should determine upon as being 
necessary to the efficient administration of govern- 
ment within its territory. 

That each post-office should be constituted the 
agency for the collection of all government revenues 
to be levied for the use of the land and the use of 

the various public utilities and conveniences within 

no 



PROGRESS 111 

the territory assigned to it, and for the disburse- 
ment of all government expenditures within said ter- 
ritory, j 

That each post-office should keep accurate vital 
statistics concerning the people resident within the 
territory assigned to it, keeping accurate records of all 
births, marriages, divorces, deaths, removals, convic- 
tions for crime, etc., etc., occurring within its terri- 
tory, and should keep separate records of all duly 
qualified citizens, to be used ,for jury and election 
purposes. 

That so many post-offices as might be deemed 
advisable should be constituted government stations 
for the gathering and publication of meteorological 
statistics. 



CHAPTER TWENTY 

That the Government should immediately as- 
sume proprietorship and supervision over all public 
schools and public educational institutions through- 
out the country. 

That under the direction of the President and 
the National Commission, all public schools and all 
public educational institutions should be conducted, 
and all officials, instructors, teachers and employes 
of the schools and educational institutions should 
be employed, under the civil service. 

That the Government should publish and supply 
free of cost to the pupils and students all books, lit- 
erature and printed matter used in the public schools 
and educational institutions; and that it should also 
supply free of cost to the pupils and students all ma- 
terials and supplies necessary to an intelligent and 

112 



PROGRESS . 113 

thorough study of the curricula prescribed for those 
schools and educational institutions. 

That the Government should provide ample sani- 
tary and comfortable school facilities for all children 
between the ages of four years and twenty-one years, 
resident within the country; and where they were 
found to reside in considerable numbers, separate 
schools should be provided for children of the dark- 
skinned race which formerly had been held in bond- 
age. 

That the public schools and educational insti- 
tutions should be open and free to all resident children 
between the ages of four years and twenty-one 
years, and that attendance at school between the 
ages of seven years and seventeen years should be 
compulsory. 

That from time to time the National Commis- 
sion should prescribe modern, comprehensive and 
practical courses of study for the public schools and 
educational institutions, to cover the entire period 
of a child's school age. Such courses of study to 



114 PROGRESS 

include effective military or naval training for all 
males ten years of age and older, who were sound 
in mind and body. The military or naval training 
to be so applied as to develop all of the able-bodied 
youths of the country into well qualified soldiers or 
men-of-war's-men at the age of seventeen years. 

That the government should issue national cur- 
rency and coin in payment for all extensions and 
permanent improvements to its public schools, and 
in payment for the first issue of books, literature, 
printed matter, materials and supplies to each school. 

That the cost of administering, conducting and 
maintaining the schools; the cost of additional issues 
of books, literature, printed matter, materials, and sup- 
plies ; and all deterioration in permanent value of school 
property, should be accounted as a part of the gen- 
eral cost of administering the Government, and should 
be provided for out of the general revenue fund. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 

That the President should be Commander-in- 
Chief of the army and navy, but that no power other 
than that vested in the majority vote of the people 
should have authority to declare war. 

That in times of peace the army should consist 
of so many officers and enlisted men as the National 
Commission should, from time to time, deem suffi- 
cient to afford adequate police protection throughout 
the country, plus one-third of the number so de- 
termined upon. That in times of war the army 
should be recruited to such numbers as the National 
Commission should deem necessary to accomplish 
the purposes for which war was about to be, or 
had been, declared. That in times of war all males 
of sound mind and body, and between the ages 
of sixteen years and fifty years, should be subject 

to military duty. 

115 



116 PROGRESS 

That in times of peace, three-fourths of the 
officers and enlisted men of the army should be as- 
signed to police duty, proportionately, throughout 
the cities, towns and villages of the country; for 
the enforcement of the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion ; for the enforcement of the verdicts of the cit- 
izen juries, and for the preservation of order among 
the "people. 

That in times of peace, one-fourth of the officers 
and enlisted men of the army should be assigned 
to suitable military posts, for military training and 
service. 

That in times of peace all officers and enlisted 
men of the army should rotate in assignment to 
military and police duty in such manner that each 
officer and each enlisted man should have three 
months of military training and nine months of police 
duty during each year of his service, with such 
pay and such furlough allowances as the National 
Commission might determine upon. 

That while assigned to military duty the officers 



P R GR E S S 117 

and enlisted men of the army should be governed by 
military usages, but should be answerable to the 
people upon the same terms as private citizens for 
violations of any of the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, and for acts prejudicial to the public peace, 
safety, or welfare. 

That while assigned to police duty the officers 
and enlisted men of the army should be under the 
direction of the Public Prosecutors of the post-offices 
to which they may have been assigned, and for 
violations of any of the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, and for acts prejudicial to the public peace, 
safety, or welfare, they should be subject to trial and 
punishment by citizen juries in the same manner 
provided for all citizens. 

That the navy should consist of whatever naval 
requisites the National Commission should, from 
time to time, determine upon as being absolutely 
necessary to promote the general safety and welfare 
of the Nation. 

That the National Commission should make lib- 



118 PROGRESS 

eral provision for compensating the officers and en- 
listed men of the army and navy for service and for 
injuries sustained, and should make liberal provision 
for their retirement with pay for disability, for age 
and for service. 

That the National Commission should provide 
a military and a naval school; should provide for 
the selection of officers from the graduates of those 
schools and from the ranks of the army and navy, 
and for the promotion of officers by seniority and 
for meritorious service. 

That for all expenditures upon the army and 
navy in times of war with foreign nations; for all 
expenditures in the payment of pensions originating 
in foreign wars; for all expenditures in payment of 
pensions originating in wars which occurred prior to 
the proclaiming of the new Constitution; and for all 
expenditures upon permanent extensions and im- 
provements of buildings, fortifications, ships and 
other things of a permanent character connected 
with the army and navy, the Government should 



PROGRESS 119 

issue national currency which should be allowed 
to remain permanently outstanding among the peo- 
ple. 

That all expenditures for the maintenance of 
the army and navy during times of peace, or during 
times of internal war; all expenditures in payment 
of pensions originating in times of peace, or in 
times of internal war; and all deterioration of ma- 
terials, buildings, fortifications, ships, and other 
things of a permanent character connected with the 
army and navy, during times of peace or internal 
war, should be accounted as part of the general 
cost of administering the Government, and should 
be provided for out of the general revenue fund. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 

That each post-office should be constituted the 
sole and only voting place for the citizens resident 
within the territory assigned to it. 

That every citizen should be entitled to one 
vote on every question which might be submitted to a 
vote of the people of the electoral district wherein 
he or she was a resident, or which might be sub- 
mitted to a vote of the people of the country at 
large. 

That from and after the date of its proclama- 
tion, every person of sound mind, regardless of sex, 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, who 
had resided, or who should thereafter reside, con- 
tinuously for a period of twenty-one years within 
the country, was a duly constituted citizen thereof, 
and, as such, if native-born, should be eligible to any 
office under the Government; or, if foreign-born, 
should be eligible to any office in the civil or military 

120 



PROGRESS 121 

service of the Government, except an elective office. 

That no person while employed in the civil ser- 
vice, nor for one year after such employment, should 
be eligible to any elective office under the Govern- 
ment. 

That all foreign-born residents who, prior to 
the date of the proclaiming of the Constitution, and 
in compliance with the law, had become fully quali- 
fied citizens of the country, should have the full 
rights of foreign-born citizenship. That all foreign- 
born residents who, prior to the proclaiming of the 
Constitution, and in compliance with the law, had 
declared their intention to become citizens of the 
country, should be entitled to the full rights of for- 
eign-born citizenship immediately after they should 
have completed a twenty-one year period of resi- 
dence. 

That no citizen ; no native-born minor child ; 
nor any other person who had previously lawfully 
declared his or her intention to become a citizen, 
should be deprived of his or her liberty except by 



122 PROGRESS 

authority of a commitment issued by a duly con- 
stituted citizen jury, after a full, fair, impartial 
and public trial, as provided for at length in the 
Constitution. Provided, however, that in cases where 
there was imminent danger of an accused person 
committing further serious offenses while at liberty, 
or of leaving the community to escape trial, a citi- 
zen jury might, at its discretion, order his or her con- 
finement in a suitable place pending trial ; but that no 
money or property bond in lieu of imprisonment 
should be required of or accepted from any person. 
That every citizen, while occupying a homestead 
in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution 
and the rules and regulations promulgated by the 
National Commission, and while personally present 
thereon, should be exempt from arrest and from 
the service of any warrant or other document, ex- 
cept a subpoena issued by authority of a lawfully 
constituted citizen jury; or a summons to jury duty 
issued by a duly authorized official; or a summons 
to military or police duty issued by authority of the 



PROGRESS 123 

National Commission, And while in attendance upon 
any case, or engaged in any service, wherein so sub- 
poenaed or summoned; or while in attendance at 
public worship in a regular place of public worship; 
or while passing directly to or from his or her 
homestead in pursuance of such attendance or service, 
should be so exempt. Provided, that should any citizen 
repeatedly commit offenses against the public peace, 
health, safety, or welfare, a citizen jury might then 
declare such offender to have waived such exemption, 
and to be subject to arrest or service. 

That immediately after the expiration of three 
years from the date of the proclaiming of the Con- 
stitution, citizen juries should proceed to carefully, 
charitably, and publicly examine all persons impris- 
oned prior to the date of the proclamation and then 
involuntarily confined in prisons and penal institu- 
tions throughout the country ; and should immediately 
liberate and restore to their full rights under the 
Constitution all those whom the juries might de- 
termine upon as not being dangerous to the public 
peace, health, safety or welfare, under the new con- 
ditions. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 

That as a measure of public policy the Govern- 
ment, through its post-offices, should immediately as- 
sume proprietorship over all public property of 
whatsoever description, throughout its domains. 

That the Government should immediately as- 
sume proprietorship over all privately owned land, 
of whatsoever description, throughout its domains. 
And that it should immediately proceed to appraise 
at their true value all such lots, parcels or tracts 
of privately owned land, together with the > im- 
provements thereon, and compensate the former own- 
ers thereof as rapidly as the values could be ascer- 
tained, by paying them in national currency and coin, 
through the post-offices nearest the land. 

That all persons occupying lands at the time 
of the proclaiming of the Constitution should retain 
possession of them without further payment of rent, 

124 



PROGRESS 125 

interest, or taxes, until such time as the Government 
could replot and allot the land to its citizens as pro- 
vided. 

That the Government should immediately pro- 
ceed to survey, classify and replot all lands through- 
out its domains. That all agricultural and grazing 
lands should be classified according to their fer- 
tility, their desirability and their proximity to trans- 
portation and the centers of population, and should 
be replotted into five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, 
forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred, one hundred and 
twenty, one hundred and forty, one hundred and 
sixty, three hundred and twenty, and six hundred 
and forty acre tracts, according to their classifica- 
tion. 

That all mineral and timber lands should be 
classified as such, and should be made available to 
all citizens in such tracts and upon such terms 
as the National Commission should from time to 
time determine upon as being best to conserve the 
mineral and timber resources of the country, to pre- 



126 PROGRESS 

vent monopoly, and to promote active and actual 
competition in all mineral and timber products. 

That all cities, towns and villages should be 
classified according to their population, and should 
have certain boundaries established for each. That 
throughout the cities, towns, villages and country 
districts suitable and sufficient reservations of land 
should be made for governmental, religious, educa- 
tional, park, cemetery, industrial, commercial, pleas- 
ure, amusement, sporting, exhibition and other pur- 
poses which might be determined upon as tending 
to enhance the general health, peace, comfort, hap- 
piness and welfare of the people. 

That all lands not reserved by the Government 
for governmental, religious, educational, park, ceme- 
tery, industrial, commercial, pleasure, amusement, 
exhibition, sporting and other purposes necessary 
to the general health, peace, comfort, happiness and 
welfare of the people should, as quickly as practicable, 
be classified and replotted into such tracts, roadways, 
streets and alleys, according to their classification, 



PROGRESS 127 

as the National Commission might determine upon 
as best to conduce to the living of wholesome, 
happy and ideal lives by all of the people, and as 
best promoting the general convenience, health, peace, 
comfort, happiness and welfare of the Nation. 

That so soon as the cities, towns and villages 
should be replotted, the Government should proceed 
to readjust all transportation facilities and other 
public utilities to the new arrangement, in such 
manner as to best serve the convenience of the 
people. 

That all communities should be provided by the 
Government with all such practicable modern con- 
veniences as the density of their population would 
enable the Government to operate and maintain with- 
out the necessity of making too burdensome a charge 
upon the residents for the service. 

That all land in cities, towns and villages; all 
agricultural and grazing land; not reserved by the 
Government for certain purposes as provided, should 
be classified as homestead land. 



128 PROGRESS 

That all land not suitable for homestead land 
but known to contain workable quantities of ores, 
coal, stone, petroleum, gas, or other minerals of 
commercial value, or whereon such values should 
thereafter be proven to exist, should be classified as 
mineral land. 

That all land not suitable for homestead land 
but containing timber of commercial value, should 
be classified as timber land. 

That so much land adjacent to natural power 
sites as should be deemed ample for the practical 
development of the power available; so much land 
along the railways; along the shores of lakes and 
coasts of seas; along rivers and streams; in the 
cities; in the towns; in the villages and other com- 
munities; as the National Commission should deem 
ample for the advancement of the industry and 
commerce of the people, should be classified as in- 
dustrial land. 

That every duly qualified citizen should have 
the right to file upon and occupy for homestead 



PROGRESS 129 

purposes only, and for so long a time as he or she 
should make reasonable use of -the land for home- 
stead purposes and not for immoral purposes, any 
lot, plot or tract of land not reserved by the Gov- 
ernment for other purposes, or not previously filed 
upon or occupied by some other duly qualified citizen 
whose legal occupancy was still in effect. 

That every duly qualified citizen should have 
the right to file upon and occupy for industrial 
purposes only, and for so long a time as he or she 
should make reasonable, legitimate and moral use 
of the land for industrial purposes only, any lot, 
plot or tract of land which had been reserved by 
the Government for industrial purposes, and which 
in its established rules the National Commission 
may have determined upon as suitable for the par- 
ticular enterprise the citizen applicant might rep- 
resent, and which had not previously been filed upon 
or occupied by some other qualified citizen whose 
legal occupancy was still in effect. 

That every duly qualified citizen should have 



130 PROGRESS 

the right to file upon and occupy for the purpose 
for which it may have been designated only, and 
for so long a time as he or she should make rea- 
sonable, legitimate and moral use of the land for the 
purpose of removing minerals therefrom for use or 
profit, any lot, plot or tract of land designated by 
the Government as mineral land, and which had not 
previously been filed upon or occupied by some other 
duly qualified citizen whose l^gal occupancy was 
still in effect. 

That every duly qualified citizen should have 
the right to file upon and occupy for the purpose for 
which it may have been designated only, and for so 
long a time as he or she should make reasonable, 
legitimate and moral use of the land for the pur- 
pose of removing timber therefrom for use or profit, 
any lot, parcel or tract of land designated by the 
Government as timber land, and which had not prev- 
iously been filed upon or occupied by some other 
duly qualified citizen whose legal occupancy was still 
in effect. 



PROGRESS 131 

That any duly organized religious or fraternal 
organization or body should have the right to file 
upon and occupy for religious or fraternal purposes 
only, and for so long a time as the organization 
or body should make reasonable, legitimate and moral 
use of the land for religious or fraternal purposes 
only, any lot, plot or tract of land which may have 
been reserved by the Government for religious or 
fraternal purposes, and which had not previously been 
filed upon or occupied by some religious or fra- 
ternal organization or body whose legal occupancy 
was still in effect, and which under the rules of the 
National Commission might be determined upon as 
suited to the needs of the religious or fraternal 
organization or body applying. 

That all land reserved by the Government for 
governmental, educational, park, cemetery, commercial, 
pleasure, entertainment, amusement, exhibition, sport- 
ing, and other purposes, should be held for the 
general use of the people under such rules and regu- 



132 PROGRESS 

lations as the National Commission might from 
time to time prescribe. 

That all citizens occupying or using land clas- 
sified as homestead land, but which at any time proved 
to contain valuable timber or minerals in workable 
quantities, should be disqualified, by reason of the 
existence of such values, from occupying or using 
any additional lot, parcel or tract of timber or min- 
eral land, as the case might be. 

i That every citizen who was the owner of land 
should have the preference right to any one lot, plot, 
parcel or tract of land of each class, the major 
portion of which, according to the new plot, had be- 
longed to him or her at the time of the proclaim- 
ing of the new Constitution. Provided, he or she 
should file his or her preference with the land de- 
partment of the Government within ten days after 
the first date set for filing upon lands of the locality 
wherein the land so preferred might be situated. 

That no person should be permitted to file upon 
or occupy more than one lot, plot, parcel or tract 



PROGRESS 133 

of land of the same classification in any one period 
of three years. 

That the Government should at all times carry 
all taxes assessed against its citizens for occupancy 
or use of land, three years in arrears. 

That a man and a woman, having been lawfully 
wedded, should jointly have the land privileges of 
one citizen only, so long as their marriage should 
remain in legal effect. 

That upon the lands reserved for commercial 
purposes the Government should immediately pro- 
ceed to erect commodious, adequate, artistic and 
thoroughly modern structures specially adapted to the 
accommodation of all legitimate and moral lines of 
trade and the professions; so located as to best 
serve the convenience of the people of the communi- 
ties concerned, and to be made available to all citi- 
zens upon such terms as the National Commission 
might from time to time determine upon as being 
best to prevent monopoly and to promote, active 



134 PROGRESS 

and actual competition in all lines of trade and in 
all professions. 

That the Government should immediately proceed 
to provide ample, suitable and moral places of pub- 
lic entertainment, amusement, sport, exhibition, etc., 
etc., so located throughout the country as to best 
serve the convenience of the people, and to be made 
available to all citizens upon such terms as the 
National Commission should establish. 

That the Government should immediately proceed 
to provide ample and suitable park, hospital, and 
cemetery accomodations, so located throughout the 
country as to best serve the convenience of the peo- 
ple; to be operated as absolutly free institutions, and 
to be maintained in excellent condition at the ex- 
pense of the general revenue fund of the Govern- 
ment. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 

That the National Commission should coin money- 
out of such metals (except gold) , and in such volume 
and such denominations as it might from time to 
time determine upon as being best suited to the con- 
venience and welfare of the people. 

That the National Commission should issue a 
national currency based upon the gross assets of 
the Government, then existing, and to be acquired. 

That the coin and currency so authorized should 
constitute the only lawful money of the country, 
and should be a full lsgal tender for all obligations, 
both public and private; for all imposts due the Gov- 
ernment; for all commodities; and for all labor 
and service. 

That the Government should establish and 

maintain a National Clearing House for the adjust- 

135 



136 PROGRESS 

ment of all international trade occurring between 
its citizens and those of other nations. 

That for the purpose of adjusting any balances 
of trade which might occur between its citizens and 
the citizens of foreign countries, the Government 
should immediately proceed to take possession, by 
whatsoever means might be found necessary, of all 
gold coin and gold bullion existing within its realms, 
and should reimburse the possessors thereof in the 
national currency and coin, at the face value of 
the unmutilated gold coin, and at the reasonable 
value of the gold bullion. 

That the Government should continue to pur- 
chase from the producers, at its actual value, all 
gold produced within its realms, paying the produc- 
ers therefor in national currency and coin; and 
should retain for international purposes all gold 
coming into its possession. Provided, however, that 
it should sell at its actual value such quantities as 
the National Commission might, from time to time, 



PROGRESS 137 

allot for actual use in the trades, the arts and the 
sciences only, and not for coinage or export. 

That the Government should immediately proceed 
to retire all outstanding lawful money of the old 
Government by substituting therefor its face value 
in the new national currency and coin. 

That the National Commission should never 
enact nor adopt any measure which would have a 
tendency to, in any manner or to any appreciable 
extent, reduce, lessen or contract the volume of money 
in circulation among the people, when such money 
had been issued by the Government in payment for 
lands; for railways or for other public utilities; in 
payment for extensions of, or permanent improvements 
to, lands, buildings, railways or other public utilities; 
in payment for anything of permanent value ; in pay- 
ment of all lawful public debts which had been con- 
tracted by the Nation and its numerous communities 
prior to the proclaiming of the new Constitution; 
in payment of pensions originating in wars which 
had occurred prior to the proclaiming of the new 



138 PROGRESS 

Constitution; in payment of the cost of wars which 
might arise against foreign nations; in payment of 
pensions originating in foreign wars; or in payment 
of the difference between the sum of the national 
revenues of the period, and the cost of conducting 
the Government for the first three years succeeding 
the proclaiming of the Constitution. 

That from and after the expiration of three 
years from the date of the proclaiming of the new 
Constitution, every person residing within the coun- 
try and possessed of wealth, either within or with- 
out the country, in excess of ten million dollars, and 
every person residing without the country and pos- 
sessed of wealth within the country in excess of 
ten million dollars, should forfeit all such excess 
wealth to the general revenue fund of the Gov- 
ernment. And if any person or persons so possessed 
of excess wealth should not voluntarily surrender 
the same to the Government within three months 
from the expiration of the three year period, then the 
Public Prosecutors throughout the country should im- 



PROGRESS 139 

mediately bring proceedings before citizen juries 
against all persons believed to be so possessed, with 
a view to ascertaining the sum of such excess wealth. 
And when an excess should be found to exist, the 
citizen juries should immediately proceed to con- 
demn and confiscate, for the benefit of the general 
revenue fund of the Government, wealth in double 
the sum of the excess so ascertained. 

The same provision was made for all partner- 
ships, firms, corporations, associations, and other 
concerns consisting of two persons and doing busi- 
ness for profit, which should be found to be pos- 
sessed of wealth in excess of twenty million dollars; 
and for all partnerships, firms, corporations, associa- 
tions and other concerns consisting of three or more 
persons and doing business for profit, which should 
be found to be possessed of wealth in excess of 
twenty-five million dollars. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 

That as a measure of public policy the payment 
of interest on indebtedness of whatsoever descrip- 
tion, both public and private, should cease forever 
upon the date of the proclaiming of the Constitu- 
tion. 

That all lawful public indebtedness should be 
paid and retired as quickly as practicable. 

That all private indebtedness which had been 
incurred prior to the date of the proclaiming of the 
Constitution should be subject to the laws which 
had previously prevailed concerning such matters 
in the communities wherein the indebtedness existed, 
except that no interest should accrue after the date 
of the proclamation, and provided such cases as 
necessitated litigation should be litigated before citi- 
zen juries, whose decisions should be final and irre- 
vocable. 

140 



PROGRESS 141 

That no provision should be made for enforcing 
the collection of debts, other than imposts due the 
Government, originating after the date of the pro- 
claiming of the Constitution; and that all indebted- 
ness, both public and private, except imposts due the 
Government, should become null and void and of no 
effect after the expiration of three years from that 
date. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 

That in lieu of the numerous banks which had 
previously existed, the Government should constitute 
each post-office a bank of deposit for the safe-keep- 
ing of the funds of the Government and the money 
of the people. 

That as a measure of public policy each post-office 
throughout the country should immediately take pos- 
session, in the name of the Government, of all of 
the assets of every bank, trust company, savings 
association, and every other concern of whatsoever 
description, doing anything in the nature of a money 
loaning business for profit within its territory. That 
all assets so obtained should be promptly appraised 
and all such concerns be liquidated as quickly as 
practicable, and that each party at interest should 
be promptly paid out of the assets, as his or her 

interest appeared. 

142 



PROGRESS 143 

That no post-office, nor any other department, 
agency, official or employe of the Government should 
ever loan public money, or deposit public money 
outside of the postal banks, under any circumstances 
whatsoever. 

That each post-office should at all times reserve 
sufficient money to fully meet any demand which 
might reasonably be expected to be made upon it by 
its depositors, and should, from, time to time, forward 
to the banking department at the seat of govern- 
ment, all accumulations of money in excess of the 
sums so reserved. 

That the banking department of the Government, 
after reserving a reasonable and safe proportion 
of the deposits of the people to enable it to meet 
every demand for money which might reasonably 
be expected from its depositors, should deliver to the 
other departments of the Government, for redistri- 
bution, all accumulations of money in excess of the 
sums so reserved, in such manner as to obviate any 
necessity on the part of the Government for manu- 
facturing and issuing a needlessly enormous quantity 
of money. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 

That, as a measure of public policy, each post- 
office throughout the country should immediately 
take possession of all of the assets of every insur- 
ance company, corporation, association, society, or 
other concern doing anything in the nature of an 
insurance business for profit within its territory. 
That all assets so obtained should be promtly ap- 
praised and the concerns be liquidated as quickly 
as practicable, and that each person interested should 
be promptly paid out of the assets, as his or her in- 
terest appeared. 

That each post-office should be constituted a 
government agency for the issue of life, accident, 
fire, marine and tornado insurance certificates, and 
for the payment of same upon satisfactory proof of 
death, injury, or loss. 

That the Government should not solicit for 

144 



PROGRESS 145 

insurance business of any kind, or in any manner 
urge it upon the people, but should merely supply to 
those citizens who voluntarily sought it such insur- 
ance as was provided for in the Constitution. 

That like all other departments of the Govern- 
ment, the insurance department should be conducted 
under the direction of the President and the National 
Commission, who should establish premium rates to 
be charged for insurance which would be sufficient 
to make the department absolutely self-sustaining, 
and to enable it to contribute its proportional part 
to the payment of the general cost of government. 

That all lawful life, accident, fire, marine and 
tornado insurance in effect on the date of the pro- 
claiming of the new Constitution should be continued 
and renewed by the Government, at the option of the 
insured, at the premium rates shown by the policies, 
until such time as the National Commission should 
have established a new schedule of premium rates. 

That all lines of insurance, other than life, 
accident, fire, marine and tornado insurance, should 



146 PROGRESS 

be null and void and of no effect, from and after 
the date of the proclaiming of the new Constitu- 
tion; and that the Government should refund to the 
policy holders, from the assets of the institutions con- 
cerned, all unearned premiums paid on policies so 
voided. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 

That the National Commission should establish 
and promulgate rules and regulations for the incor- 
poration of valid, moral business concerns only. Such 
rules and regulations to provide for close govern- 
mental supervision over all business, and to be so 
drawn as to prevent monopoly and to promote active 
competition in all lines of business. 

That all industrial, commercial and other con- 
cerns, except individuals singly, doing business for 
profit, should be required to obtain government char- 
ters before doing business. That before charters 
should be granted, such concerns should be required 
to show themselves to be possessed of assets of an 
actual value at least equal to the sum of their 
capital stock. That no concern should be chartered 
with a capital in excess of twenty-five million dol- 
lars, and that citizen juries should prescribe drastic 

147 



148 PROGRESS 

penalties for the commission of any act which would 
have a tendency to restrain trade or stifle competi- 
tion. 

That if it should at any time develop that an 
enterprise existed whose tendencies were monopolis- 
tic or whose success was largely dependent upon its 
being a monopoly, then such enterprise should im- 
mediately be taken possession of by the Government, 
which should compensate the owners to the extent 
of the appraised value of the enterprise. 

That all valid, moral business concerns which 
were already established upon the date of the pro- 
claiming of the Constitution, except those to be taken 
over by the Government as provided, should be per- 
mitted to continue business temporarily, but should 
be required to comply with the rules and regulations 
of the National Commission relating to the incorpora- 
tion of such concerns, within one year from the date 
of the publication of such rules and regulations. 

That the National Commission should provide 
liberal compensation to all government employes for 



PROGRESS 149 

injuries sustained, and for their retirement with pay, 
for disability, for service and for age, and should 
require every private business enterprise, either in- 
dividual, corporate, or otherwise, doing business for 
profit, to make identically the same provision for 
its employes. 

That as a measure of public policy, each post- 
office throughout the country should immediately 
take possession, in the name of the Government, of 
every railway, street-railway, water-works, electric- 
works, sewage-works, telegraph system, cable system, 
telephone system, express system, dock, wharf, bridge, 
or other facility of general public use and commonly 
known as public utilities, within its territory. That 
all properties so taken should be promptly appraised 
at their true value by competent appraisers employed 
under the civil service, and the former owners thereof 
be compensated in full in the national currency as 
rapidly as the values should be so ascertained. 

That as soon as practicable, and as rapidly as 
might be, the Government should undertake and 



150 PROGRESS 

carry to completion the readjustment of all trans- 
portation facilities and other public utilities, so as 
to properly conform to the new conditions, and so as 
to make them most efficiently serve the convenience 
of all of the people. 

That so soon as might be, the Government should 
undertake and carry to completion a general, com- 
prehensive and systematic plan for the permanent 
improvement of the public highways throughout the 
country. 

That as soon as practicable the Government 
should undertake and carry to completion a general, 
comprehensive and systematic plan for the straighten- 
ing of the rivers and streams throughout the coun- 
try, and for their confinement between permanent 
embankments; making them navigable insofar as 
practicable. 

That as soon as practicable the Government 
should undertake and carry to completion the con- 
struction of a general and comprehensive system 
of canals, for the purpose of conveying surplus and 



PROGRESS 151 

flood waters from the sections of the country where 
much water abounded, to the arid and semi-arid 
sections; also making the canals navigable insofar 
as practicable. 

That for all expenditures necessitated by the 
purchase and construction of the foregoing works, 
the Government should issue national currency and 
coin, which, being representative of the permanent 
value of the works, should be allowed to forever re- 
main in circulation among the people. 

That upon the acquisition or completion of any 
or all of the foregoing works, the National Commis- 
sion should establish rates to be charged for their 
use which would amply provide for their maintenance 
and operation, and for the payment of their propor- 
tional part of the general cost of government. 



CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 

That the President, the Vice-President, and the 
National Commission, should at all times endeavor 
to keep the operating expenses of the Government 
and its various departments down to the lowest 
point compatible with competent and efficient ser- 
vice, and with reasonably liberal compensation to 
all employes. 

That all revenues should be derived from rates 
to be established' and charged for the use of land, 
and for the use of the various public utilities. 

That by the beginning of the fourth year after 
the proclaiming of the Constitution, the National 
Commission should determine upon and establish 
rates to be charged for the use of lands; for the 
use of railways, docks, wharfs and all other pub- 
lic means of transportation; for the use of the mails, 
telegraphs, telephones and all other public means of 

152 



PROGRESS 153 

communication; for the use of the postal banks as 
safe places of deposit; for the use of the insurance 
department; and for the use of all other public utili- 
ties of whatsoever description, which would create 
sufficient revenues to enable each department to amply 
provide for its own operating- expenses ; for the main- 
tenance of its particular branch of the public ser- 
vice in excellent working order; and for the payment 
of its proportional part of the general cost of gov- 
ernment. Said rates to be relatively equal to all 
people, and proportionally equal to all sections of 
the country; and never to be so great as to cause 
the accumulation of revenues materially beyond the 
necessities of the Government for its current operat- 
ing expenses. And that no authority other than the 
authority vested in the majority vote of the whole 
people should ever impose any other tax, license or 
fee upon the people; or upon the property, business, 
professions or vocations owned or followed, or upon 
any commodities owned, grown, manufactured, pro- 
duced or used by them. 



154 PROGRESS 

That should an excess of revenues over operat- 
ing expenses occur at any time for any reason, the 
rates established for the particular department or 
departments which had been the source of the sur- 
plus should be reduced in a sufficient amount to cause 
that department or those departments to gradually 
absorb the surplus. That should a deficiency occur 
in the revenues, then the rates established for the 
particular department or departments which had been 
the source of the deficit, should be raised in a suffi- 
cient amount to cause that department or those de- 
partments to gradually make up the deficiency. 

That in the event any considerable funds should 
accumulate from forfeitures of excess wealth as pro- 
vided for, such funds should be apportioned pro- 
rata among all revenue earning departments of the 
Government, and rates therein should be reduced 
in sums sufficient to result in the gradual absorp- 
tion of such accumulated funds by those departments. 

That in the foregoing manner the revenues 
should at all times be maintained approximately equal 



PROGRESS 155 

to the expenditures for maintenance and operating 
expenses, so that there might be no periods of undue 
and injurious expansion or contraction of the vol- 
ume of money in circulation among the people. 



CHAPTER THIRTY 

That in lieu of the numerous courts which had 
previously existed, each post-office should be consti- 
tuted the sole and only court for the trial of all 
cases originating in the territory assigned to it, or 
upon the waters adjacent thereto; and that each 
post-office should have assigned to it so many Pub- 
lic Prosecutors, employed under the civil service, as 
might be deemed necessary to the preservation of the 
public health, peace, safety, and welfare. 

That each post-office should carefully keep, for 
jury purposes, a separate list of all citizens residing 
within the territory assigned to it. That from those 
lists venires for juries should be drawn, beginning 
at the top of the list and in turn going entirely 
through it before beginning at the top again, in such 
manner that every qualified citizen would be required 
to serve his or her regular turn of jury duty. 

156 



PROGRESS 157 

That each Post-master, or duly authorized as- 
sistant, should, from month to month, draw from 
the jury lists, in the order in which their names ap- 
peared, so many citizens for jury service as in his 
or her opinion would be sufficient to meet the re- 
quirements for juries during the succeeding cal- 
endar month. Provided, however, that not more 
than one immediate member of a family should 
serve on the same jury. 

That all cases involving women only, should 
be tried by juries composed of women only. That 
all cases involving men only, should be tried by 
juries composed of men only. That all cases involv- 
ing both men and women should be tried by juries 
composed of four men and three women, or vice 
versa. And that no member of the dark-skinned 
race which had formerly been held in bondage 
should be eligible to a jury for the trial of a case 
involving a member of any race other than his or 
her own. 

That there should be no established judiciary 



158 PROGRESS 

or established courts, other than the post-office courts 
as provided. That all manner of causes, civil and 
criminal; local, national, and international, might 
be instituted in the post-office courts for trial by 
juries composed of qualified citizens as provided. 

That there should be no written law other than 
the Constitution, nor should there be any fixed civil 
or penal code. 

That when a case had been duly filed with the 
Postmaster or an authorized assistant, as provided, 
that official should immediately proceed to select, 
with due regard to race, sex and family, as provided, 
the first eleven veniremen who, under oath or affirma- 
tion, and in answer to questions propounded by the 
official, should declare themselves as not being re- 
lated in any degree to either party concerned in the 
case to be tried; as having neither a direct nor an 
indirect interest in the result of the case to be tried ; 
and as being free to render a fair and unbiased de- 
cision based upon whatever facts might be proven 
to his or her satisfaction. 



PROGRESS 159 

That from the eleven jurors so selected each 
side to the case to be tried should challenge two; 
thus leaving a jury composed of seven citizens, which 
should first select a chairman from among its mem- 
bers, and then proceed to publicly try the case in 
hand in whatever manner it might deem best to 
bring out all of the facts in the case. Should issue 
and cause to be served such summons and subpoena 
such witnesses as it might deem essential. Should 
promptly render to the Postmaster or authorized 
assistant a clear, concise and definite verdict in ac- 
cordance with the facts ascertained; and at the same 
time should prescribe such penalties as, in its opinion, 
would be commensurate with the merits of the case. 

That the verdict of each jury in each case should 
be final and irrevocable. That there should be no 
appeal therefrom. And that the Postmaster or au- 
thorized assistant should use so much of the forces 
of the Government as might be necessary to rigidly 
enforce the mandates of all duly constituted citizen 
juries. 



160 PROGRESS 

That citizen juries should not prescribe a death 
penalty for any crime other than the crime of treason ; 
nor should they prescribe the payment of a money 
or property fine as punishment for crime; but 
should use the suspension or forfeiture of the rights 
of citizenship, and imprisonment in penal institu- 
tions, as the only means of punishment. 

That any person who should give aid or com- 
fort to the enemies of the country; or who should 
commit any act which would have a tendency to 
seriously depreciate the value of government money; 
or who should coerce or bribe, or attempt to coerce 
or bribe, any civil or military official or employe 
of the Government; or any civil or military official 
or employe of the Government who should either 
solicit or accept a bribe; or any person who should 
coerce or bribe, or attempt to coerce or bribe, a 
a juror; or any juror who should either solicit or 
accept a bribe; or any person who should coerce or 
bribe, or attempt to coerce or bribe, a voter; or any 
voter who should either solicit or accept compensation 



PROGRESS 161 

for his or her vote; should be deemed to have com- 
mitted treason, and, in the discretion of the citizen 
jury by whom a person charged with treason should 
be tried, should, if found guilty, be punished by sus- 
pension or forfeiture of the rights of citizenship; by 
imprisonment in some penal institution; or by death 
in such manner as the jury should prescribe. But 
that no attainder of treason should extend beyond 
the person or persons immediately concerned in the 
crime. 

That should a question of rights arise, any party 
to the question could go before the Postmaster or an 
authorized assistant, and, upon oath or affirmation, 
file a petition setting forth the facts in the case; 
or should any person commit any act prejudicial to 
the public health, peace, safety, or welfare, any per- 
son could go before the Postmaster or an authorized 
assistant, and, upon oath or affirmation, file an infor- 
mation setting forth the facts in the case ; whereupon, 
in either case, the Postmaster or authorized assistant 
should immediately submit the petition or informa- 



162 PROGRESS 

tion, as the case might be, to whatever citizen jury- 
might be available at the time; whereupon the jury- 
should proceed to issue such instruments and orders 
as the alleged facts might warrant; try the case as 
soon as might be in justice to the parties concerned, 
and promptly render a decision based upon the facts 
proven to its satisfaction. 

That no juror, having been once summoned, 
should be discharged for the term of the summons 
until such time as all cases which had been brought 
before any jury of which he or she was a member 
should have been tried and finally decided. 

That the National Commission should establish 
the rate of compensation for jurors and witnesses, 
and should authorize the payment of same out of 
the general revenue fund of the Government; but 
no juror's compensation should extend more than 
ten days beyond the calendar month for which he 
or she may have been summoned. 

That in all criminal cases the Public Prosecutors 
should prosecute before the juries, in behalf of the 



PROGRESS 163 

Government; and that each defendant in criminal 
cases, and each party to civil cases, should have the 
right to be represented before the jury trying his 
or her case, by one advocate. But that no person 
other than a Public Prosecutor should be permitted 
to act in the capacity of advocate in more than one 
case in any one calendar year. 

And there were numerous other provisions relat- 
ing to primary and general elections; to the manner 
of initiating recall measures and amendments to the 
Constitution; relating to marriage, divorcement, for- 
estry, and fish and game conservation; rights of 
succession to land leases; maritime matters, patents, 
copyrights, etc., etc., etc.; sufficient in fact to pro- 
vide for every contingency which might arise in 
the administration of the Government and of jus- 
tice. 



164 PROGRESS 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 

O say can you see by the dawn's early light 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last 
gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the peril- 
ous fight 
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly 
streaming? 
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still 
there. 
O say does the star-spangled banner still wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 

Where the foes haughty host in deep silence reposes, 

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep; 

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? 

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first 

beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream. 
'Tis the star-spangled banner — O long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, 
A home and a country should leave us no more? 

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pol- 
lution. 
No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the 
grave. 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 



PROGRESS 165 



O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand 

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation! 
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the Heav'n-rescued 
land 
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a 
nation ! 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

—Key. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 

The Constitution proclaimed was so devoid of 
malice, of envy, of hatred, of special privilege, of fa- 
voritism. It was so broad, so fair, so just, and so 
equitable to all classes; and it contained so many- 
wise provisions for a happy and general deliverance 
of the great down-trodden masses, without material 
injury to the co-called classes; that, instantly recog- 
nizing that it constituted the long sought for and 
only practical solution of the preposterous conditions 
under which they had been existing; the people at 
last awoke from their deplorable state of lethargy 
and helplessness, and almost unanimously and without 
hesitation went to its support with great enthusiasm 
and with loud acclaim. 

They, the people, at last had found an instru- 
ment which was so bold, so strong, and so popular 
that it gave absolute assurance of instant relief from 

166 



PROGRESS 167 

the enormous exactions of the many vicious systems, 
which throughout their existence had victimized and 
plundered them so outrageously. That it gave every 
citizen instant and free access to land whereon to 
establish a home, without subjecting himself or her- 
self to exorbitant and intolerable taxation. That it 
immediately provided a stable, well-founded currency 
in such enormous volume as to fully meet all of 
their requirements for a medium of exchange; as 
to relieve them entirely of any necessity for longer 
maintaining any system of credits; and as to enable 
them to immediately undertake public improvements 
of an immensity theretofore never conceived of. That 
by the obliteration of the numerous evil systems 
it effected so many, and such enormous economies 
in many fields of wasted human endeavor, that it 
would inevitably result in the redemption of the 
human race from any necessity for forcing myriads 
of its women and immature children into public 
labor, with all its consequent evils. That it provided 
equal opportunities to all citizens. That it summarily 



168 PROGRESS 

took the power of money off its pedestal of abso- 
lutism, and raised humanity in its stead. That under 
its provisions no person would become abjectly poor, 
and no person could become dangerously rich. That 
it made the possession and exercise of talent, energy 
and merit the sole qualifications necessary to success 
and advancement in life. That, finally, it gave abso- 
lute assurance of such wonderful progress in human 
affairs, and of such vast advancement in human up- 
lifting, as to transform what had become a virtual 
hell, into a glorious heaven. 

The Provisional President immediately appointed 
a Board of Commissioners from all sections of the 
country, to the number of forty-nine, to administer 
the affairs of the Nation, pending the holding of an 
election of officials as provided for at length in the 
Constitution. 

A very few disgruntled political and business 
interests at first sought to thwart the establishment 
of the new Government, and maintain the old; but 
very quickly discovered they could obtain no assis- 



PROGRESS 169 

tance or support from the people, and so of neces- 
sity as quickly ceased their opposition and submitted 
to the inevitable new rule. The new organization 
promptly took over the machinery of the old Gov- 
ernment, and thus in a surprisingly short time a 
complete revolution in government, and in the af- 
fairs of the people, had been accomplished without 
serious disturbance. 

Obtaining control of the machinery of govern- 
ment thus quickly and easily, enabled the provis- 
ional officials to put the provisions of the new Con- 
stitution into effect very rapidly, and without serious 
friction from any source. 

In due time an election of officials was held, the 
new Government was firmly and permanently estab- 
lished, and a glorious new era of universal peace, won- 
derful progress, and perpetual prosperity for the 
country, for the planet, and for all of the people 
thereon, had come to remain for all time. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO 

All employes of the former Government; all 
employes, teachers and instructors in the public 
schools; and all employes of both publicly and pri- 
vately owned public utilities, were retained in their 
respective positions pending the adjustment of af- 
fairs to the provisions of the new Constitution, when 
all such employes as were qualified citizens were 
given an opportunity to qualify for the civil service. 

The National Commission promptly established 
and promulgated broad, liberal and comprehensive 
rules and regulations for the administration and 
guidance of the civil service in all of its many 
branches. It provided for the issue of sufficient 
money to meet the enormous expenditures of the 
Government in its payments for lands, for public 
utilities, for public indebtedness, etc., etc., etc. It 
provided for the maintenance of the public schools 

170 



PROGRESS 171 

and educational institutions. It promulgated rules 
for the registration of every resident of the country, 
and for the keeping of accurate records and complete 
vital statistics relating to all residents. It promul- 
gated rules for the admission of aliens, which greatly 
restricted immigration. It established rates to be 
charged for the occupancy and use of land and the 
various business structures, and for the use of the 
various transportation facilities and other public 
utilities; basing all rates upon the actual cost of 
maintenance and operation of the facilities affected, 
and adding to each its proportional part of the gen- 
eral cost of administering and maintaining the Gov- 
ernment. 

In the foregoing manner was each individual re- 
quired to support government only insofar as he 
made use of government. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE 

The revolutionizing of the Government by plac- 
ing its administration in the hands of a few; mak- 
ing the functions of those few purely administra- 
tive and not legislative; making them fully and di- 
rectly responsible and answerable to the people; and 
making the people the sole authority for the enact- 
ment of law, and for the application of law to trans- 
gressors, had the immediate effect of relieving the 
people of the enormous burden of supporting the 
monstrous, multitudinous, unnecessary, and worse 
than useless political structure which had imposed 
itself upon them. 

The placing of all public institutions under a sin- 
gle government ownership, and the policy of operating 
them under uniform civil service rules, enabled the 
Government to provide all communities with the 

very best public service possible of attainment, and 

172 



PROGRESS 173 

at once relieved all public employes from their former 
aggravating situation as the helpless prey of hordes 
of petty politicians, who constantly harassed them. 

The people were also instantly relieved of the 
former harassing experiences of frequent caucuses, 
conventions, primaries, and elections; and of the 
almost continuous succession of campaigns for the 
election of myriads of school, township, municipal, 
county, state, and national officials, which previously- 
had so closely resembled a universal continuous vaude- 
ville performance, of colossal proportions, and with 
an exceedingly bad reputation. 

The abolishment of the myriad offices which 
formerly had been needlessly maintained at enor- 
mous cost, effected a marvellous saving to the peo- 
ple, in time, in money, in property, and in human 
endeavor. And the abolishment of the innumerable 
political divisions of the country, enabled the people 
to enjoy the great privilege of having uniform law 
throughout the land. 

The concentration of administrative authority 



174 PROGRESS 

made it possible for the people to elect talented, 
honorable, competent, efficient and effective citizens 
to the few elective offices, and relieved them of any 
further necessity for electing the colossal and in- 
congruous mass of incompetent, self-opionated and 
extremely crooked politicians which for many years 
had disgraced the Nation. 

Each post-office was designated the sole and only 
voting place for the people of the territory as- 
signed to it, and all citizens were allowed one week 
in which to cast their ballots in each election. Pro- 
vision was made at length for the selection of judges 
and clerks of election, from among the citizens. 

One primary and one general election were held 
annually, and no question could be submitted to a 
vote of the people at any other time. 

After the first election, when the voters of each 
electoral district were required to choose seven Na- 
tional Commissioners, and the voters of the country 
at large a President and a Vice-President ; the voters 
of each electoral district were required to choose 



PROGRESS 175 

only one National Commissioner annually, and the 
voters of the country at large a President and a 
Vice-President septennially. 

This great paucity of elective offices at once 
raised the politics of the country out of the sea 
of filth and mire in which it had become engulfed, 
up to a high plane of decency, honesty and clean- 
liness, making it entirely worthy of the best char- 
acter, talent and energy the country could produce. 

The people having at last assumed the direction 
of their public affairs through the instrumentality 
of their Constitution; having acquired the power 
to select their administrative officials by direct pri- 
mary and popular vote; and being enabled by their 
power of recall to hold their officials to a strict ac- 
countability, had finally come into an inheritance of 
pure democracy, the equal of which the planet never 
had experienced, and which gave absolute assurance 
of establishing an era of the most amazing progress 
the human race had ever known. 

The immensity of the progress and prosperity 



176 PROGRESS 

which immediately followed the adoption of the Con- 
stitution so impressed itself upon the people of the 
other nations that a number of them immediately 
set about adopting similar forms of government ; and, 
all being gloriously successful, Nation followed Nation 
in taking like action, until, within a quarter of a 
century, every Nation on the planet came to be gov- 
erned practically in the same manner; each having 
its own monetary system for domestic purposes, and 
all entering into an international treaty providing 
for a fair and equitable adjustment of all inter- 
national trade balances, on a gold basis. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR 

The beneficial effect of the new order of things 
upon all classes was instantaneous and astounding. 
The possessors of wealth, though deprived of the 
power to use their wealth as a means of exploiting 
and plundering the masses of the people, yet at the 
same time were afforded a safe protection against 
those forces which aforetime had in turn plundered 
them. The immeasurable relief of the sorely over- 
taxed land owners was exceeded only by the full, 
deep, soul-stirring, and heart-exalting relief which it 
brought to the countless millions of the poor, down- 
trodden, overwrought, and well-nigh hopeless people 
of the tenant class; who, from vain chasing after 
faint rays of hope through many centuries, were at 
last suddenly brought into the full bright glory of 
equal rights to land, and an abundance of land for 

all. 

177 



178 PROGRESS 

Great corps of appraisers were set to work clas- 
sifying and appraising all real estate, and all pri- 
vately owned railways and other public utilities; and 
as rapidly as the true property values were so de- 
termined upon, the former owners of the land, of the 
railways, and of the other public utilities, were paid 
in full in the new national currency, as their in- 
terests appeared. 

Other great corps were set to work re-plotting, 
according to the classifications made by the boards 
of appraisers, all cities, towns, and villages, and all 
land throughout the country, in such manner as to 
best conduce to the general welfare of all the people. 

In the cities, towns, and villages, after making 
suitable and sufficient reservations for certain pur- 
poses as provided for, the remainder of the land 
was plotted into such tracts and such streets and 
passageways as had been determined upon by the 
National Commission as being best to promote the 
living of wholesome, comfortable, and happy lives 
by all of the inhabitants. 



PROGRESS 179 

Outside of the cities, towns, and villages all land 
was classified, replotted, and allotted to the citizens 
in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. 

Excellent streets and walks were provided in 
all cities, towns, and villages, and highly improved 
permanent roadways throughout the country districts. 

As rapidly as the lands were replotted those 
residents who were qualified citizens became busily 
engaged in selecting locations, and in re-establishing 
their homes in accordance with the new conditions. 
Each former owner of land was given a prefer- 
ence right in the selection of land as provided. 

As the various homestead, industrial, and other 
tracts of land were selected and filed upon by the 
citizens, the improvements thereon were sold to them 
by the Government, at their reasonable value based 
upon the new conditions. Gradual payments for the 
improvements began at the expiration of three years 
from the date of their purchase by the citizens, and 
all moneys derived from the sale of such improve- 



180 PROGRESS 

ments was accounted as withdrawn from circulation, 
and was retired. 

No fee was charged for filing on land, and 
though taxes began to accrue from the date of filing, 
yet no payments were required for three years. This 
wise and beneficent provision made it possible for 
every citizen, be he or she ever so poor, to acquire a 
place whereon to establish a home or an enterprise 
without the necessity of becoming involved in ever- 
lasting and all-absorbing interest-bearing indebted- 
ness. Every man and every woman who was a 
qualified citizen was given full opportunity to obtain 
land thus easily, and the citizens universally availed 
themselves of the splendid opportunity given. 

Many millions of industrious people who formerly 
had constituted the tenant class, and who as tenants 
necessarily had wasted much of their time at home 
in idleness, were now enabled to devote their spare 
time to the improvement of their homes. The bene- 
ficial effect of this vast domestic economy was mar- 



PROGRESS 181 

vellous. Its significance will be readily understood 
by any intelligent mind. 

The people of the dark-skinned race which prev- 
iously had been held in bondage, were provided for by 
establishing separate public schools, and by segregat- 
ing certain and sufficient areas of land, for their 
use in all communities where they resided in consider- 
able numbers. In other respects they were accorded 
the same privileges as other citizens. 

In the rural districts many people abandoned 
the arid and semi-arid land which they had long been 
vainly endeavoring to make productive, and concen- 
trated upon smaller tracts of the more fertile land, 
where they very successfully took up intensive farm- 
ing. In later years, as the vast measures undertaken 
for the improvement of water distribution progressed, 
these arid and semi-arid lands were repossessed and 
brought to a high state of productivity, eventually 
becoming quite densely populated. 

The concentration of the agricultural class upon 
the more fertile lands, made it possible for that 



182 PROGRESS 

class to profitably produce a great abundance of all 
agricultural products necessary to life, thus aiding 
materially in reducing the insufferably high cost of 
living which previously had prevailed. Also, by 
having it concentrated upon the more fertile lands, 
the Government was enabled to provide this class 
with much better school facilities than previously 
had been practicable, and to also provide the rural 
districts with many of the modern conveniences en- 
joyed by the residents of the cities and towns. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE 

In lieu of the antiquated, obsolete, and closely- 
restricted monetary system — the control of which was 
in the hands of certain predatory interests — which 
had provided but a few dollars of circulating lawful 
money per capita; which had necessitated the Gov- 
ernment's borrowing money, or extorting it from the 
people by iniquitous taxation, whenever it desired 
to undertake any measure which required the expen- 
diture of any considerable sum; and which, more- 
over, had forced upon the people the colossal, mon- 
strous, hideous, wicked and unnecessary credit sys- 
tem; the Government began and continued the issue 
of coin and currency in sufficient volume to meet 
the excess of its expenditures above its revenues for 
the first three years of its existence, and for all of 
its expenditures in payment for things of permanent 
value. 

183 



184 PROGRESS 

Coinage was issued in such volume and in such 
denominations as the convenience of the people de- 
manded, and currency was issued in convenient de- 
nominations and in such volume as the expendi- 
tures of the Government necessitated. 

Both were constituted the only lawful money 
within the jurisdiction of the Government, and both 
were made a full legal tender for all imposts due 
the Government for the use of the land, and for 
the use of the transportation facilities and the many 
other public utilities; in exchange for labor, services, 
and all commodities ; and for all purposes whatsoever. 
Both were constituted a full legal tender for all debts, 
both public and private, during the first three years 
of the Government's existence, regardless of the 
conditions and stipulations of such indebtedness. 

For the purpose set forth in the Constitution., 
the Government immediately proceeded to possess 
itself of all gold coin and gold bullion existing within 
its domains, and continued to take possession of all 
gold produced from its lands; recompensing the own- 



PROGRESS 185 

ers in national currency and coin. It continued re- 
selling, at stated periods, so much of the gold bullion 
as the National Commission deemed necessary for 
use in the trades, and in the arts and sciences. 

The vast sums of money disbursed among the 
people by the Government were very largely de- 
posited in the postal banks, where it was available 
for re-distribution by the Government. Each postal 
bank being required to retain only so much money 
as would enable it to meet the probable demands of 
its depositors. The practice of re-disbursing a large 
part of the funds so deposited, saved the Govern- 
ment the great expense of manufacturing an unneces- 
sarily huge and cumbersome quantity of money, and 
caused the wealth of the people, in time, to become- 
largely represented by credits at the postal banks, 
which credits could be cashed at any time upon de- 
mand. 

Being based upon the actual worth of the many 
enormously valuable assets previously owned, and 
others later on acquired, by the Government; being 



186 PROGRESS 

readily accepted by the people as their only lawful 
money; and everybody fully understanding that dras- 
tic retribution at the hands of citizen juries was cer- 
tain to overtake any person who might attempt to 
in any manner depreciate its value, made it a very 
easy matter for the Government to maintain the 
stability of the vast sums of money it disbursed and 
maintained in circulation. And the existence of 
vast sums of convenient and stable money, well dis- 
tributed throughout the country, forever ended the 
frequent recurrence of periods of great financial 
stress and hard-times, with all their accompanying 
misery and woe. 

Money, the possession of which had theretofore 
enabled the possessor to exercise almost supreme 
power; the possession of which most people had 
looked upon as the one thing most to be desired in 
life; and for the possession of which a vast majority 
of the people had sacrificed love, truth, honor, virtue, 
body, or soul; was brought down from its lofty pin- 
nacle of absolute power, and made to serve the 



PROGRESS 187 

people in its proper sphere as a mere medium of 
exchange. Its acquisition ceased to be the source 
of much evil, and it became a simple convenience, 
like other useful things. It could no longer be used 
as an instrument for the extortion of tribute from 
the religion, the labor, the commerce, the industry, 
the homes, or the property of the people. 

In the absence of any lawful system of credits 
other than those extended by the Government for im- 
posts, money was completely deprived of its earning 
power as money, and was brought to a state where, 
in order to earn anything for itself, it must needs 
be invested in industry at its own risk, and thereby 
necessarily co-operate with labor to accomplish 
progress. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX 

The Government very quickly set about retiring 
all lawful public indebtedness by paying all creditors 
in full in the new national currency. In its payments 
for lands, for transportation facilities, for public 
utilities, and for other property, it protected the in- 
terests of creditors to the extent of their just claims 
against all property involved. 

The policy of the capitalization of the vast re- 
sources of the country by the Government, for the 
benefit of all of the people, instead of permitting 
them to be capitalized, exploited, and monopolized 
by private interests, — to the serious detriment of 
humanity and of progress, — at once afforded a legiti- 
mate, fair, and equitable means of providing the 
people with a convenient, stable and adequate supply 
of money. A supply of money sufficiently abundant 
to relieve them of any further necessity for main- 

188 



PROGRESS 189 

taining the preposterous, evil, apd all-absorbing credit 
system, which had imposed innumerable and inde- 
scribable hardships and unspeakable agonies upon 
them throughout their existence. 

The provision for the absolute annulment of all 
indebtedness, except imposts due the Government, af- 
ter three years from the date of the proclaiming of 
the Constitution, forever put an end to the possi- 
bility of any person becoming involved in debt to 
the serious injury of his creditors, his friends, or 
himself. 

There could no longer lawfully exist a vast ag- 
gregation of bonds, notes, mortgages, book accounts, 
judgments, and other evidences of indebtedness, to 
utterly spoil the joy of living for untold millions 
of people. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN 

Each post-office throughout the country took im- 
mediate possession of the assets of every bank, trust 
company, savings institution, and every other firm, 
corporation, institution, and concern which had been 
doing anything in the nature of a money loaning 
business for profit within its territory. All such as- 
sets were duly appraised and converted into money 
as rapidly as was practicable, and each party inter- 
ested was paid out of such funds, as his or her in- 
terest appeared. 

Every post-office throughout the country was im- 
mediately authorized to accept deposits of money 
in any sum, but no interest was paid on such de- 
posits, nor did the Government undertake to do any- 
thing in the nature of a loan business. 

Thus were the people afforded a convenient and 

safe place for keeping the vast sums of money which 

190 



PROGRESS 191 

were distributed among them in payment for their 
lands, for their railways, for their other public utili- 
ties, etc., etc.; and in payment for the enormously 
extensive public improvements which were immed- 
iately undertaken by the Government. 

The abolition of the banking system eliminated 
another of the evil factors which had been responsible 
for the shameful plundering of the people for many 
generations, and effected another immeasurable econ- 
omy in a very large field of wasted human endeavor. 

The myriads of people formerly connected with 
the banking and money loaning business soon found 
other vocations in life which enabled them to con- 
tribute something toward the general advancement 
of their race, and which elevated them above their 
former position as parasites upon humanity. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 

Each post-office throughout the country immed- 
iately took possession of the assets of every firm, 
corporation, association, institution and concern 
which had been engaged for profit in anything of the 
nature of an insurance business within its territory. 
All assets so obtained were duly appraised and con- 
verted into cash as rapidly as was practicable, and 
each party interested was paid out of such funds, as 
his or her interest appeared. 

Every person who held a life, accident, fire, ma- 
rine, or tornado insurance policy which was valid 
and in effect upon the date of the proclaiming of 
the Constitution, was granted the privilege of hav- 
ing it rewritten by the insurance department of the 
Government, under rules and rates established by 
the National Commission. Rates which were safely 

192 



PROGRESS 193 

established at less than one-fourth of the sums prev- 
iously exacted from the people for like service. 

The abolishment of the insurance system elim- 
inated still another of the evil factors which had 
been responsible for the shameful plundering of the 
people for many generations, and effected still an- 
other immeasurable economy in a vast field of wasted 
human endeavor. 

The vast multitude of intelligent, energetic and 
industrious people who formerly had followed the 
insurance business without materially benefiting any- 
thing but the system they served, sought and found 
many useful vocations open to them, wherein they 
could attain to a state vastly superior to their former 
condition as parasites upon industry and upon hu- 
manity. 



CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE 

The complete abolishment of the banking, in- 
surance and credit systems, — which had almost com- 
pletely concentrated the control of the money and 
credits of the whole country within a very few so- 
called interests, thereby enabling those interests to 
own, or otherwise absolutely control, practically every 
industrial enterprise worth mentioning in the coun- 
try, — together with the proviso in the Constitution 
fixing a reasonable and definite limit to both private 
and corporate wealth, resulted in the prompt dis- 
integration of the gigantic, highly-centralized, mon- 
opolistic and brutal industrial institutions, which had 
been engendered and developed to an infamous state 
of iniquity under the rule of the systems; and for- 
ever reopened the way for a broad, liberal and equit- 
able distribution of industrial opportunity among the 
people, where it properly belongs. And the vast 

194 



PROGRESS 195 

sums of money distributed throughout the country 
by the Government, in payment for lands, for rail- 
ways, for public utilities, etc., etc., enabled the people 
to avail themselves of the splendid industrial op- 
portunity thus afforded them. 

The merciless, vicious and outrageous plunder- 
ing of the people by the so-called big-business in- 
terests of the country instantly ceased, and all of the 
innumerable useful products of the planet were made 
available to the people absolutely free from monopo- 
listic and systematic robbery. 

Having been relieved of the numerous over- 
whelming burdens which previously had been imposed 
upon them, and which had practically stifled all en- 
terprise except that of big-business, the people rap- 
idly developed a multitude of small, medium, and even 
quite large industrial enterprises, which very quickly 
demonstrated that they could profitably and success- 
fully manufacture — without any so-called tariff pro- 
tection — all those numerous articles to the manufac- 
ture of which the country was adapted, and success- 



196 PROGRESS 

fully compete with the other nations, in the markets 
of the planet. Wherever raw materials, which could 
be converted into articles of use and value by a 
process of manufacture, could be profitably produced 
in considerable quantity, capital was readily avail- 
able for those persons desirous of taking up its man- 
ufacture. Myriads of factories were quickly estab- 
lished throughout the country; thus saving to the 
people the enormous and needless waste of human 
effort formerly expended in transporting vast quan- 
tities of raw materials great distances across the 
country, to be manufactured into articles of use and 
value, and then retransported back over practically 
the same routes, for distribution among the people 
at a cost which included not only the enormous 
transportation charges, but several unnecessary profits 
as well. 

The numerous evil systems having been com- 
pletely abolished, and a superabundance of stable 
money being readily available for any beneficial en- 
terprise the Government or the people desired to 



PROGRESS 197 

undertake, industrial progress no longer could be 
absolutely blocked by the solid and all-powerful pha- 
lanx of over-greedy systems, which formerly had 
vigorously opposed, and effectually prevented, the 
accomplishment of every enterprise which could not 
be made to redound almost wholly to their benefit. 

Having been given almost free access to the 
land, and being provided with an abundance' of cap- 
ital for industrial and all other purposes, the people 
very quickly produced a superabundance of every- 
thing necessary to life, and soon almost literally 
filled the country with all of the innumerable useful 
things which contribute so much to the comfort and 
joy of living. 

The enormous amount of human energy and 
thought which formerly had been expended upon the 
numerous evil systems, could now be devoted to use- 
ful pursuits. And these colossal economies in human 
endeavor resulted in the complete emancipation of 
millions of the women and immature children of the 
country from certain classes of labor for which 



198 PROGRESS 

they were wholly unfitted, but to which they had 
been driven by their urgent necessities. 

The transportation facilities and the reservations 
of land for industrial and commercial purposes were 
made to harmonize, and the horrid disfigurement 
of the cities and towns by the numerous railways was 
thoroughly corrected. 

As rapidly as effective working forces could 
be organized, the Government undertook innumerable 
and vast public improvements. Such as the ex- 
tension and improvement of all public utilities; the 
extension and improvement of the streets and walks 
in all cities, towns and villages; the construction 
of thousands upon thousands of miles of perma- 
nent public highways throughout the country; the 
construction of imposing public buildings and huge 
trade palaces throughout the cities, towns and vil- 
lages; the straightening of the courses of the num- 
erous rivers and streams, confining them between 
permanent embankments, and making them navigable 
insofar as practicable; and the construction of thou- 



PROGRESS 199 

sands of miles ef huge canals — also made navigable — 
for the purpose of conveying enormous quantities of 
the surplus and flood waters from certain sections 
of the country, to the vast areas of arid and semi- 
arid land which existed in other sections. 

Within a few years, when all nations had 
adopted the same form of government; when uni- 
versal peace at last had become an established fact, 
and international co-operation in the grave matter 
of water distribution had been made possible, the 
canal system of the country, the construction of which 
was well under way, was made to conform with the 
plans of the other nations of the planet, and, con- 
jointly with them, the Government undertook the 
construction of a grand international system of 
canals, to extend in unbroken lines for thousands 
of miles across the surface of the planet. An en- 
gineering achievement incalculably greater than any- 
thing ever before undertaken by mankind, and 
fraught with inestimable value to the human race. 

As time progressed and section after section of 



200 PROGR E S S 

the canals was completed and opened to service, 
they afforded a very convenient means of transpor- 
tation, and an abundant supply of water for all arable 
land; besides carrying away the vast quantities of 
surplus and flood waters, which always had been a 
serious obstacle to the development of large and 
wonderfully rich areas of the planet's surface. 

All improvements and extensions undertaken 
by the Government were made as nearly permanent 
as it was possible to make thpm, so they would 
forever remain a continuous blessing to the people. 

The undertaking of all these stupendous enter- 
prises gave rise to an incalculable amount of useful 
and beneficial work, and all of the people soon became 
busily engaged in useful occupations, all naturally 
receiving liberal compensation for their services. 

Money, having been shorn of its inexorable earn- 
ing power by the complete abolishment of the credit 
system, was forever eliminated as an overwhelming 
competitor and enslaver of labor, and compelled to 
co-operate with it in the accomplishment of industrial 



PROGRESS 201 

advancement. And, having thus succeeded in having 
its only competitor transformed into an efficient ally, 
labor very quickly arose from the depths of hope- 
less poverty and degradation to which it had been 
driven by the exactions of the systems, and resumed 
the position of dignity and honor to which it was 
justly entitled; asserting its right to, and obtaining, 
a fair share in the general prosperity of the Nation. 

All legitimate business at once received an im- 
petus so universal and forceful as to astound the 
people of every nation on the planet. An era of 
astounding progress and permanent prosperity for 
all immediately set in, which theretofore had been 
entirely beyond the power of mankind to conceive. 



CHAPTER FORTY 

Having at one glorious stroke forever removed 
the innumerable festering political barnacles from 
off the hull of the Ship of State; and having forever 
rid the rigging, the decks, and the whole interior, of 
the pestiferous vermin systems, the people mounted 
to their rightful station on the bridge of the grand 
old Ship, manned her with an able crew of their 
own choosing, and with clear skies, fair weather, 
and favorable wind, steered a straight course to the 
glorious harbour of low taxation, wholesome lives, 
comfortable homes, happiness, peace, progress, and 
permanent prosperity for all. 

No tax, license or fee could be levied upon any- 
thing except for the use of the land and the various 
public utilities; and for the use of those only such 
rates could be established as would provide for their 

maintenance and operation, and for the general cost 

202 



PROGRESS 203 

of government. Thus were the revenues maintained 
on a basis which necessitated their immediate re- 
distribution among the people, in payment for ma- 
terials, supplies, and services; and thus was the 
National Commission enabled to establish rates of 
taxation on land, and charges for the use of the 
public utilities, infinitely lower than the lowest rates 
ever before known. 

In the foregoing manner were the necessary reve- 
nues of the Government exacted from those who made 
use of the Government's resources; thus obviating 
any necessity for levying a tax upon the food, the 
wearing apparel, the vocations, the business or the 
property of the people. No section of the country 
could be made, by a process of taxation, to pay 
tribute to another section; nor could any class of 
people be made to pay tribute to any other class. 



CHAPTER FORTY-ONE 

The abolition of the antiquated, cumbersome, 
ineffective, indefinite, iniquitous and enormously ex- 
pensive court system, with its accompaniment of vol- 
uminous, intricate, conflicting and obscure laws, re- 
lieved the people of another of the serious obstacles 
to the progress and advancement of humanity. 

The immense number of cases which were pend- 
ing in the courts when the Constitution was pro- 
claimed, and which were left undecided by them, 
caused the citizen juries to become very busy for 
a year or two ; but as they tried all cases promptly, 
and very quickly rendered decisions which were ab- 
solutely final and irrevocable, they soon cleared their 
dockets of all old cases. As no new cases could 
arise as the result of the existence of an unneces- 
sarily enormous political system; a trouble brewing 
private-ownership-of-land system ; an inadequate mon- 
etary system; a preposterous credit system; a vicious 

204 



PROGRESS 205 

insurance system; an unnecessary and burdensome 
banking system; an iniquitious and monopolistic in- 
dustrial system; or a colossal, exorbitant and op- 
pressive taxation system; and as the people, being 
relieved of oppression, became almost entirely free * 
from criminality; the citizen juries, after the first 
two years, had very few cases to come before them, 
and thenceforward a very few persons in each com- 
munity came to suffice for all juries necessary. 

The absence of written law and a penal code, 
which, by establishing a somewhat regular schedule 
of prices and punishments for which crime could 
be committed, formerly had had a tendency to de- 
velop and increase crime, instead of preventing it, 
made it impossible for anyone to foretell what punish- 
ment would be meted out by a citizen jury, to the 
perpetrator of any crime; and the probability of 
drastic punishment being prescribed, had the effect 
of putting an almost complete stop to the commis- 
sion of wilful crime. 

The granting of immunity from arrest to all 



206 PROGRESS 

citizens while actually and personally occupying their 
homesteads, as provided, had the effect of saving per- 
sons not naturally criminal, from becoming criminal 
through unnecessary association with criminals in 
prison; and effectually put an end to the former vic- 
ious practice of ruthlessly tearing from their homes 
and families, and casting into prison before trial, 
many innocent persons who were unable to supply 
the bail demanded by the courts. 

The abolishment of the pyramidal court system; 
the making final and irrevocable the verdicts of 
citizen juries; the abolishment of the custom of levy- 
ing a money fine as a means of punishment for 
crime; the abolishment of the custom of accepting 
money or property bonds in lieu of imprisonment 
pending trial; and the further abolishment of the 
custom of permitting imposing arrays of counsel to 
appear at trials, had the effect of causing all per- 
sons who appeared before citizen juries to appear 
there upon an equal footing; prevented the possessor 
of wealth from having an undue advantage over the 



PROGRESS 207 

poor individual in obtaining justice for his or her 
cause; and aided materially in establishing all citi- 
zens upon a common level under the Constitution. 



CHAPTER FORTY-TWO 

And now let us for a few moments just glance 
at the situation at the present time— the beginning of 
the twentieth century of the Christian era. 

The Constitution went directly at the funda- 
mentals of human difficulties and achieved a com- 
plete reconstruction of human practices: from a 
sound foundation of human welfare, to a lofty pin- 
nacle of human liberty. 

During all the intervening centuries it has con- 
tinued in effect with but a few minor changes, made 
necessary by the progress of time, and the high state 
of perfection to which mankind has attained. 

It is beyond the capacity of the unaccustomed 
human mind to at once comprehend the sublime 
beauty, the supreme joy, and the great exhileration 
of life as it exists on the planet of Mars today, yet 
it were needless to attempt to give anything more 

208 



PROGRESS 203 

than a cursory description of the immensity of the 
difference between the conditions under which the 
people now are joyously living, and those which 
prevailed prior to the time the new Constitution was 
proclaimed. Just a little time devoted to careful 
thought by any intelligent mind will surely disclose 
many startling advantages which were gained by 
humanity through government under the Consti- 
tution's wise, liberal and beneficent provisions. 

Whereas, formerly the human race largely had 
degenerated into a struggling mass of whimpering 
monomaniacs, worshipping at the shrine of money; 
now, every individual of sound mind and of adult 
age is a Man or a Woman, standing squarely upon 
his or her rights of equality in the pursuit of life, 
and worshipping nothing but the God who gave them 
being. 



CHAPTER FORTY-THREE 

The Constitution abruptly and utterly destroyed 
a rule of the systems, by the systems, and for the 
systems, and in its stead established the first purely 
democratic government in all history. The glor- 
iously beneficial effect of which upon humanity has 
been amply attested by its adoption by the people 
of all nations, and by its universal continuance 
throughout many centuries. 

All nations having quickly adopted similar con- 
stitutions, universal political harmony and universal 
peace long ago became accomplished facts. The vast 
armies and navies which formerly were maintained 
at enormous cost to all nations were completely dis- 
banded ages ago; and the enormous sum of human 
energy utterly wasted upon them was diverted 
into useful channels, where it contributes largely 
toward the general human uplifting. 

210 



PROGRESS 211 

The same form of government having become 
universal, practically all people became content to 
remain in the land of their nativity. No longer 
are countless millions of people driven to such in- 
tolerable desperation as to reluctantly break all cher- 
ished home ties and migrate to distant countries in 
search of opportunity in strange lands, only to find 
themselves there made servants of new masters. 

The obliteration of the innumerable political 
divisions of the country, and the placing of all govern- 
ment employes, other than the few elective officials, 
under the civil service, had the effect of raising the 
entire governmental structure above its former de- 
plorable state as the vehicle of reward for, and 
asylum to, vast hordes of useless and superfluous 
politicians. 

The policy of concentrating the administration 
of all governmental affairs within a single govern- 
ment, composed of a comparatively few elective of- 
ficials, and of making those officials directly respon- 
sible to the people, has resulted in the election to 



212 PROGRESS 

office of individuals of high character and great 
ability only, who of necessity are far above the nar- 
row sectionalism, fanatical partisanship, and local 
and personal selfishness which were so typical of 
the old-time politicians, whose sinister influence upon 
public affairs formerly was so serious an obstacle to 
the progress of the people. 

The whole country having been divided into 
only seven electoral districts, the old false local and 
state pride and dangerous sectionalism were obliter- 
ated; and, as under the Constitution all communities 
of like classification must be accorded the same 
privileges and the same conveniences at the hands 
of the Government, the whole Nation moves for- 
ward as a grand unit for the benefit of all. 

No longer does the preposterous condition exist 
whereunder a great and enlightened people would 
periodically elect a numerous Congress to enact laws 
for their benefit, and then tamely and dumbly sub- 
mit to Congress after Congress neglecting their in- 
terests and the public welfare by dividing along par- 



PROGRESS 213 

tisan lines, in order to promote discord, dissatisfac- 
tion and defeat, instead of uniting in harmonious 
accord to accomplish peace, progress and prosperity. 

No longer does the preposterous condition exist 
whereunder a few sections of a State or of the 
Nation would elect honorable and capable law-makers, 
only to find the numerous other sections of the State 
or Nation had elected a horde of incompetent, corrupt 
and noisome politicians, who would almost invar- 
iably, and with malice aforethought, overawe, over- 
ride and defeat every really beneficial measure 
brought before them. 

No longer are the people the outraged victims 
of an antiquated and preposterous custom of elect- 
ing innumerable and vast assemblages of so-called 
legislative representatives who, when assembled, al- 
most invariably, and with premeditation and malice 
aforethought, deliberately substituted their silly and 
vicious partisanship for patriotism, and their rotten 
party policy for the public welfare. 

No longer are the people outraged, maltreated 



214 PROGRESS 

and nauseated by the graft, crime and filth of a 
colossal aggregation of parasitic and almost univer- 
sally corrupt local politicians, who had no scruples 
against, nor showed any hesitancy about, using the 
schools and other public institutions both as a reward 
to, and as a refuge for, themselves and their hench- 
men. 

No longer are the people continuously harassed 
by frequently recurring campaigns and elections of 
innumerable petty officials. They now quietly, intel- 
ligently, deliberately, determinedly, and with a full 
knowledge of the candidates before them, vote for one 
National Commissioner each year, and in addition 
thereto, every seventh year they vote for a President 
and a Vice-President. 



CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR 

Upon the successful completion, several centur- 
ies ago, of the huge international canal system made 
possible by the co-operation of the numerous nations 
of the planet, all arable land became available for 
cultivation. Thus was the area of available produc- 
tive land more than doubled, and the possible pro- 
ductivity more than quadrupled; adding infinite val- 
ues to the enormous wealth already possessed by 
the people. 

Whereas the cities, towns and villages formerly 
were plotted largely with innumerable narrow streets 
in order to obtain an immensity of frontage and 
thereby greatly enhance the factitious value of the 
land, without much if any regard for sanitation, 
or for the safety, comfort or happiness of the peo- 
ple who were to occupy it, now they are plotted 

with many less, but much broader, safer and better 

- 215 



216 PROGRESS 

streets; with ample reservations for all purposes 
necessary to an enlightened people; with residential 
plots of ground of sufficient size and proper form 
to insure ideal living conditions; and with due re- 
gard for sanitation and the safety, comfort and 
convenience of the people. 

The transformation of the country, under the 
new regime, was most pleasurably marvellous. The 
cities and towns were quickly transformed from com- 
pact, overcrowded, dirty, noisome, wicked, monstrous 
aggregations of ugliness, strife, iniquity and de- 
generacy, into broad, open, beautiful, wholesome, 
healthful, righteous centers of civilization; a large 
number of them now containing the homes of many 
millions of people; a few, located at the points of 
intersection of certain canals, having grown so enor- 
mously as to be more than two hundred miles across 
in either direction. The country districts too, hav- 
ing been transformed from their former unkempt, 
neglected, wasteful and unsightly condition, to a 
happy state of perfect development, with innum- 



PROGRESS 217 

erable splendid and interminable highways; highly- 
improved and happy homes; numerous modern con- 
veniences and thoroughly cultivated lands, are beauti- 
ful to behold, and present the appearance of vast, 
well-kept parks. The whole country, cities, towns, 
villages and country districts, has attained such a 
high state of perfection that to live in any locality 
therein is a profoundly sublime experience. 

No longer does the preposterous and paradoxical 
condition exist whereunder literally thousands of 
excellent dwelling houses stood vacant and fell into 
decay through lack of use, while at the same time 
thousands of worthy but unfortunate families were 
suffering extreme discomfort, misery, and mental, 
moral, physical and spiritual degeneration, in dilapi- 
dated hovels and overcrowded tenements. 

No longer do thousands of overworried and tax- 
ridden landlords stalk abroad throughout the land 
exacting the toil-earned weekly or monthly savings 
of entire families of toiling, struggling people, for 



218 PROGRESS 

the privilege of occupying wretched properties which 
ofttimes were wholly unfit for human habitation. 

No longer does there exist an immense tenant 
class striving to the utmost of its physical capacity, 
from month to month and year to year, throughout 
the generations, in agriculture and in the industries, 
only to be compelled to surrender a very large part 
of its earnings to an exacting landlord class, which 
in turn was outrageously plundered of its gleanings 
by the systems. 

Under the conditions which now prevail, every 
citizen, man or woman, who so desires, has a home 
of which he or she cannot be deprived so long as 
he or she preserves his or her citizenship, makes 
reasonable and moral use of the land as a home, com- 
plies with the rules established by the National Com- 
mission, and pays the nominal tax exacted by the 
Government. And every citizen, man or woman, also 
has the privilege of occupying and using one tract of 
industrial land; one tract of mineral land; one tract 
of timber land, or one commercial or professional loca- 



PROGRESS 219 

tion, so long as he or she preserves his or her citizen- 
ship, makes reasonable and moral use of the land for 
the purpose for which it is set aside, complies with 
the rules established by the National Commission, and 
pays the nominal tax exacted by the Government. 
Truly a sublimely happy state of affairs, well worth 
many years of persistent effort to attain. 



CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE 

In the accomplishment of the numerous vast 
enterprises made possible by the provisions of the 
Constitution; in the purchase of all real estate and 
all public utilities; and in the retirement of all law- 
ful public indebtedness, the Government literally 
flooded the country with money. Flooded it with 
money to the extent that at the present time, with 
a population approximating seven hundred million 
people, the people possess money and credits in the 
postal banks in the stupendous sum of seven thou- 
sand seven hundred billion dollars, or approximately 
eleven thousand dollars per capita. And all of this 
vast sum of money, being based upon the infinitely 
valuable assets of the Government, and being a full 
legal tender within the country for everything needful 
in life, is easily maintained upon an absolutely 
stable basis. 

220 



PROGRESS 221 

Thus the people as a community possess the in- 
finite wealth of the vast and fully developed public 
resources of their country, and at the same time, as in- 
dividuals, they possess, in the aggregate, the stupendous 
sum of money issued by the Government in the acquisi- 
tion and development of those resources; besides 
possessing the incalcuable wealth represented by 
their homes, their industries and other private prop- 
erty. And the remarkable, extraordinary and best 
feature of the present condition of the people is, 
that all of this glorious constellation of wealth is 
absolutely free from debt. 

The possession of this transcendent wealth of 
homes, of property, of money, has enabled the peo- 
ple to accomplish their own wonderful ascent to a 
plane of life infinitely far above their former de- 
plorable condition of sordid parsimony; infinitely 
far above their former deplorable state wherein 
they preferred the acquisition of money to home, to 
love, to truth, to honor, to virtue, to religion, to 
Heaven itself; infinitely far above the debasing ef- 



222 PROGRESS 

feet of the toilings and strivings, the rakings and 
scrapings, the rigid self-denials, the unspeakable pri- 
vations, and the unsatisfied cravings of untold mil- 
lions who formerly had been unable to acquire more 
than would enable them to eke out a most wretched 
and toil-burdened existence. 

No longer is the progress, prosperity and hap- 
piness of a nation of intelligent and industrious 
people hampered, interfered with or destroyed by 
the frequent recurrence of periods of great financial 
stringency, such as formerly were forced upon the 
people by the systems in order to plunder them of the 
rich fruits of their toil and industry. 

Though its stability is maintained above ques- 
tion, money has become so plentiful and of such 
common presence that it is looked upon as a mere 
vehicle of exchange, made and maintained for the 
convenience of the people. Humanity has risen 
far above it, as humanity is far above a railway, a 
machine, a house, a vehicle, a street, or other thing 
of general use or convenience. 



CHAPTER FORTY-SIX 

The total abolishment of the heinous credit sys- 
tem and of everything in the nature of credits, ex- 
cept imposts due the Government, forever removed 
from the limbs of civilization the sorely galling 
shackles which, having been securely fastened upon 
it in its infancy, had cut deeper and deeper into 
the flesh as civilization developed and grew, until 
the irritation and consequent inflammation engen- 
dered thereby became intolerable and unendurable, 
and either the shackles must be summarily removed 
or civilization must revert to bestiality and eventually 
cease. The generation of people who possessed the 
profound wisdom necessary to make an opportunity 
for throwing off those sackles, and who displayed 
most valiant courage by unhesitatingly taking full ad- 
vantage of their opportunity, has, throughout the in- 

223 



224 PROGRESS 

tervening centuries, been the most celebrated and 
most highly revered generation of all of the ages. 

No longer is it necessary for generation after 
generation to involve themselves and their posterity 
in a hopeless mass of interest-bearing indebtedness 
whenever desirous of undertaking an enterprise of 
any considerable magnitude for the improvement 
of living conditions. No longer does a colossal mass 
of indebtedness constantly overshadow and overawe 
the people, making material progress extremely dif- 
ficult, and often transforming improvements intended 
as blessings, into everlasting burdens and encum- 
brances. 

No longer are countless millions of naturally 
industrious and worthy people driven to intolerable 
desperation, desperate crime, and wretched insanity 
by the insatiable and inexorable exactions of an 
iniquitous, deplorable and wholly unnecessary credit 
system. 

There are no longer countless mortgages upon 
the property and homes of the people, such as form- 



PROGRESS 225 

erly took so much of the peace, happiness, joy and 
comfort out of their home life, and which were 
directly responsible for the hopeless disruption and 
utter ruin of countless millions of homes and families. 
There is no longer any such monstrous thing 
as bankruptcy, with its accompanying shameless, 
ruthless and wicked sacrifice of the equities of th« 
debtor; with its griefs, its woes and its agonies of 
mind and soul. 



CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN 

No longer does the preposterous condition ex- 
ist whereunder a few individuals in control of the 
banking business of a community, a state, or a 
nation, were enabled to almost arbitrarily control 
the money, the credit, the progress and the welfare 
of the community, the state, or the nation, as the 
case might be. A condition whereunder the banks 
and their special favorites could absolutely control 
the commerce and industry of every community, to 
the entire exclusion of everybody else. 

No longer are the best business locations in the 
cities, towns and villages occupied by innumerable 
(luxurious banking institutions, which throughout 
their existence produced not a single useful thing, 
nor served any purpose in the production or distri- 
bution of human requisites other than to, vampire- 
like, absorb a very large part of the earnings of 

226 



PROGRESS 227 

those enterprising people who put their capital and 
energies directly into actual production and distribu- 
tion. 

No longer are very large portions of the best 
products of the people arbitrarily taken from them 
in order to sustain a certain class which controlled 
the banking system, which always stood as an in- 
surmountable obstacle to the progress of every en- 
terprise which could not be made to contribute di- 
rectly to it as a system. 

No longer are numerous prisons filled to a large 
extent with thousands of unfortunate men, such as 
formerly were made criminal through being led 
beyond their powers of resistance by the glittering 
temptations of a banking system. 

No longer is there a noxious, predatory banking 
system with a vampire's hold upon the throat of 
industry, mercilessly absorbing the energies of mil- 
lions; and perched as a parasite on progress, ruth- 
lessly dwarfing nations and races. 



CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT 

No longer does the preposterous condition exist 
whereunder an enormously wealthy and powerful 
insurance propaganda could misguide an intelligent 
and sagacious people into a belief that they were 
exercising wisdom and good judgment in paying 
from two to five dollars of good money in premiums, 
to dangerously over-wealthy insurance monopolies, 
for every single dollar they could ever possibly re- 
cover in benefits. 

No longer is the disgraceful and shameful spec- 
tacle presented of many thousands of half -paid rep- 
resentatives of predacious wealth calling regularly 
at the wretched hovels of the poor, to extort the 

toil-earned and ill-spared weekly dime from millions 

« 

of ignorant, under-fed and scantily-clad mothers, for 
two cents' worth of insurance on the lives of their 

half-starved, ragged and pitiable children. 

228 



PROGRESS 229 

No longer are the inconceivably vast energies of 
a great multitude of energetic and industrious peo- 
ple sinfully and utterly wasted in the pursuit of an 
insurance business, which produced absolutely nothing 
of use or value, nor added one single jot or tittle 
to the sum of the country's wealth ; but which, on the 
contrary, consumed much of the people's substance, 
and tended to concentrate the money of the country 
within the control of certain interests, thereby en- 
abling those interests to propagate, finance and per- 
petuate the other vile and vicious systems. 

The people having long ago accepted the doc- 
trine that any institution which takes from the many 
for the benefit of the few is fundamentally wrong 
and should not be tolerated, there is no longer any 
insurance or other system similar to it. In the en- 
joyment of the wonderful progress and prosperity 
made possible by the Constitution, the practice of 
insurance was discovered to be unnecessary and un- 
desirable, and was entirely discontinued. 



CHAPTER FORTY-NINE 

No longer are monster monopolies suffered to 
wantonly and cruelly thrust their far-reaching and 
keen-bladed pruning-knives hither and thither amidst 
the womb of industry, utterly destroying every em- 
bryo enterprise which was not of their own breed- 
ing. 

The great lapse of time and the unprecedented 
progress which has been achieved by the Nation 
since the Constitution was proclaimed, has thoroughly 
proven the old regime of close concentration of cap- 
ital and industry to have been a frightful mistake. 
That it is infinitely more advantageous to industry, 
to the Nation, and to humanity, to pursue an indus- 
trial policy which makes the success of innumerable 
moderate and small sized enterprises possible, and 
thereby sustains a vast host of becomingly modest, 
decent and safe Captains of enterprise, and myriads 

230 



PROGRESS 231 

of happy, free and independent workers, than it is 
to tolerate a highly-centralized, monopolistic and 
dangerous industrial system, with its vast multi- 
tudes of enslaved humanity commanded and driven to 
desperation by a small but self-opinionated, con- 
scienceless, vicious and criminal band of plundering, 
f reebooting and murdering Pirates of industry. 

Time has proven the infinite wisdom of a single 
government ownership of all public utilities, which 
has made it possible for all communities to be sup- 
plied with adequate facilities without assuming an 
overwhelming burden of interest-bearing indebted- 
ness, and without the payment of dividends on vol- 
uminous issues of stock. That it is infinitely better 
for a nation to capitalize its resources for the benefit 
of all of its citizens, than to suffer them to be capi- 
talized and monopolized for the sole benefit of so- 
called big-business. 

No longer is the industry of numerous communi- 
ties often completely paralyzed, and great numbers 
of people and homes destroyed, by frequently recurr- 



232 PROGRESS 

ing destructive floods. Neither is the strenuous 
toil of myriads of people frequently made vain by 
reason of the periodic recurrence of disastrous 
drouths, which formerly often blighted vegetation 
over vast areas of arable land. With the rivers and 
streams under almost perfect control, and the great 
canal system in successful operation, the recurrence 
of such disasters is practically impossible. 

No longer do there exist monster monopolies 
to make it incumbent on labor to maintain numerous 
great labor organizations, at enormous cost, and 
undergo the unspeakable hardships occasioned by fre- 
quent great labor strikes, made necessary in order 
to maintain a scale of wages which would serve to 
sustain the lives of the toilers. No longer are the 
innocent and defenseless wives and children of the 
toilers cruelly massacred in capital's vicious efforts 
to subjugate labor. 

No longer are municipal facilities and other 
public utilities made to conform to the desires of 
certain interests for the selfish promotion of their 



PROGRESS 233 

particular real estate values, almost without regard 
for the general public welfare. Now all public facili- 
ties are made to best suit the convenience of the 
people of the communities where located, and the peo- 
ple of the Nation as a whole. 

No longer are millions of the tired working peo- 
ple daily outrageously crowded like cattle into cars, 
where the sisters, daughters, wives, and even the 
mothers, as well as the men of the Nation, were com- 
pelled to ride to and from their toil in wretched 
discomfort. No longer do frequent car shortages oc- 
cur, to the serious detriment of commerce in various 
sections of the country. The Government now main- 
tains a fully adequate supply of cars of all classes, 
any number of which can be quickly transported 
to any part of the country as needed. 

The existence of a superabundance of every- 
thing necessary to life, and the non-existence of the 
numerous systems which formerly utterly wasted 
such vast sums of human endeavor, have resulted in 
very materially shortening the hours of toil for the 



234 PROGRESS 

toilers, and have made life infinitely easier, happier 
and more comfortable for all people. And being 
thus redeemed from the intense strife and soul-rack- 
ing tension of life which formerly prevailed, man- 
kind has returned to the religion of its choice and 
finds time to devote to devout worship of God and 
the Messiah. No longer does failure, disappoint- 
ment, the constant wretched fear of old age pauper- 
ism, and the farced continuous practice of a rigid 
and depressing self-denial stamp upon the counte- 
nance of humanity the unlovely and pitiable lines 
of selfishness, over-exertion, want, worry, grief, woe 
and dissatisfaction. 

So also has the existence of a great abundance 
of everything necessary to life resulted in a condi- 
tion whereunder almost every commodity has an al- 
most rigidly fixed value; fluctuations in values being 
very rare and exceedingly slight. This condition in 
turn has resulted in a complete discontinuance of the 
old evil practice of gambling in the necessities of 
the people, for the reason that where there are no 



PROG RE S S 235 

more or less violent fluctuations in values, there 
can be no successful gambling. 

For very much the same reason the old evil 
of gambling in the stocks of corporations has long 
since been discontinued. The abolishment of mon- 
opoly, the availability of capital, and the corporate 
provisions of the Constitution, induced the establish- 
ment of innumerable enterprises in all lines of in- 
dustry; and though the splendid prosperity of the 
people has enabled practically all of those enter- 
prises to operate successfully, yet the constant, active 
and keen competition among them makes the earning 
of extraordinarily large profits impossible. Conse- 
quently their shares of stock have a somewhat fixed 
value, do not fluctuate materially in value, and can- 
not be successfully gambled in. 



CHAPTER FIFTY. 

Time has proven the infinite wisdom, the eco^ 
nomic simplicity, the impartiality and the absolute 
fairness of the present system of taxation which ob- 
tains the necessary revenues of the Government by 
imposing a simple and direct tax upon those per- 
sons who make use of the resources of the country 
governed. Were it not for the pitiable condition to 
which it had materially helped to bring them, the 
old system of raising revenues by directly and indi- 
rectly taxing all of the people upon everything they 
had, upon everything they used, and upon practically 
everything they did, would now seem utterly ridicu- 
lous. 

No longer does the preposterous condition ex- 
ist whereunder generation after generation of intelli- 
gent people, foreseeing the ultimate and inevitable 

absorption of their property, would constantly and 

236 



PROGRESS 237 

vigorously protest against the exorbitant taxes which 
were being exacted of them, — many resorting to 
chicane, falsehood and perjury in order to in some 
measure escape, — yet at the same time patiently and 
dumbly submit to the continuance of a ridiculous 
political system consisting of a multiplicity of divis- 
ions such as national, state, county, municipal, etc., 
etc., etc., thousands of them being to all intents 
and purposes exact duplicates one of the other, and 
each having authority to impose taxes upon them, j 

No longer is this enlightened people subjected 
to outrageous methods of taxation and other legal- 
ized schemes for plunder, whereunder many millions 
of people who, through the exercise of thrift and 
industry during their active years, had accumulated 
competencies and even quite sizeable fortunes, yet 
were, in effect and by legalized methods, insidiously 
robbed of their accumulations, and forced to pass 
into old age the subjects of charity. The fortunate 
possessor of wealth in any sum within the limit 



238 PROGRESS 

fixed by the Constitution now enjoys a priceless peace 
of mind and sense of security formerly unknown. 

No longer is this intelligent people duped into 
a belief that they were exercising wisdom and good 
judgment in submitting to the imposition of a so- 
called tariff tax for the protection of its labor, when 
at the same time the real beneficiaries of the tax 
were scouring the planet for pauper labor to im- 
port and bring into competition with such pro- 
tected (?) labor. 

No longer are the people outrageously taxed for 
the maintenance of numerous corrupt, un wieldly and 
ineffective legislative bodies, about ninety-nine per 
centum of whose time was sinfully wasted in play- 
ing the game of politics, and in vain legislation neces- 
sitated by the existence of the several nefarious sys- 
tems; for the maintenance of innumerable cumber- 
some, corrupt, ineffective and wholly unnecessary 
state and local governments; for the maintenance of 
a colossal, corrupt, ineffective and indefinite court 
system; for the maintenance of a constant espionage 



PROGRESS 239 

over the banking, insurance and monopolistic indus- 
trial systems, necessitated by the persistent tendency 
of those systems to grab and make off with the entire 
assets of the country ; nor for the maintenance of the 
wealthy class by the payment of interest on public 
indebtedness, and by a most outrageous system of 
indirect taxation upon the necessities of the people, 
for the sole benefit of the wealthy. 

Having been relieved of the grievous burden of 
supporting the numerous nefarious systems, and be- 
ing thus enabled to reduce their taxes to an abso- 
lute minimum, the great masses of the people have 
attained to a position in life from which they can 
and do fully enjoy and rejoice in the rich fruits and 
magnificent benefits resulting from their toil and in- 
dustry. 



CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE 

In the absence of any written law other than 
the Constitution, which states its provisions in plain, 
simple terms which cannot be misunderstood; and 
being governed largely by the great unwritten law 
of right and justice between men, applied by men 
and not by individuals who set themselves up as 
judges of men, neither the country nor the planet 
any longer has need for anything in the nature of a 
judiciary such as formerly existed to the serious det- 
riment of the human race. 

No longer does there exist an intricate mass of 
written law so involved and voluminous, and com- 
posed of such a colossal mass of superfluous and 
unnecessary verbiage as to utterly confuse the people 
and make it entirely beyond the capacity of the human 
mind to intelligently, fairly and correctly interpret. 

No longer does there exist a colossal and corrupt 

240 



PROGRESS 241 

court system supported by the people at enormous 
expense, yet exacting such extortionate fees and de- 
manding such expensive modes of procedure as to 
debar all but the rich from having recourse to any 
but the lowest levels of the system. A monstrous 
court system builded in gigantic pyramidic form 
for no apparent reason other than to provide a safe 
refuge above the reach of humanity for all of the 
possessors of wealth who might choose to outrage it; 
and to lend additional force and weight to the lower 
courses of the pyramid, for the crushing of the poor, 
who had no refuge nor any recourse under the sys- 
tem, other than to suffer themselves to be crushed 
and ground amidst the myriad units of the lower 
courses, as grain is crushed and ground in the pro- 
cess of manufacturing flour. 

No longer does there exist a monstrous, corrupt, 
egotistical and self-sufficient court system, supported 
by the people at an enormous cost, yet usurping 
their powers and prerogatives, and aiding mater- 
ially in furthering the monstrous scheme of the sys- 



242 PROGRESS 

terns for unjustly, unfairly and outrageously depriv- 
ing the people of their liberty, their patriotism, and 
their property. 



CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO 

And so in the foregoing manner did this en- 
lightened and courageous people succeed in redeem- 
ing their transcendent heritage from the deplorable 
state of chaos into which it had been perverted, and 
reconstruct their institutions along lines which en- 
abled them to retransform what had become a verit- 
able hell, into a glorious Paradise. 

The period of reconstruction brought the people 
into constant contact with institutions and under- 
takings of such immense magnitude and such as- 
tonishing grandeur that naturally their minds and 
souls became instilled with the largeness of their 
surroundings. They rapidly grew away from the 
smallness of the old life, and eventually attained 
to an exalted state wherein love, virtue, truth, honor, 
justice, reign supreme and life itself is a rapturous 

and sublimely beautiful experience. 

243 



244 PROGRESS 

By one big, happy, vigorous, supreme forward 
movement did this brave people accomplish infinitely 
greater, actual and visible, spiritual and material 
progress in one single century, than had been accomp- 
lished by mankind throughout all the previous ages 
of the planet's existence. 

The Beginning 

Of the End 

Of the Rule 

Of the Systems. 



APPENDIX 



WHY? 

Why should men toil and moil from morn to night, 
Striving manfully with all their might, 
From the days of their childhood even unto old age, 
For income, profit, or a daily wage, 
Sacrificing the virtues, suffering sore travail, 
Enduring frightful hardships, which they much be- 
wail; 

By the exercise of intelligence, skill and energy 

Wresting from commerce, agriculture and industry 

Bounteous wealth of an enormous size, 

To humanity, if retained, a sufficient prize; 

Yet after all their wearisome haste 

To accumulate, passively suffer all to be laid waste 

By a few evil systems which cruelly ravage 
Civilization, viciously as any savage 
E're destroyed a helpless and hated enemy; 
Systems easily subject to an efficacious remedy 
Which men can readily administer if they will but try? 
Again the ever recurrent question — Why? 



246 



We will suffer the gilded gods and tinselled god- 
desses of big-business to motor their way joyously 
hellward unmolested, if they must, but they shall not 
longer pave their way thither with the outraged souls 
of the toiling, struggling, enterprising and industmous 
men, women and children of America. 



2A7 



I. 

Are we countless millions of freeborn, indepen- 
dent, educated, enterprising and courageous Ameri- 
cans going to passively and dumbly submit our glor- 
ious heritage, America, to be shamefully European- 
ized, and ourselves brought to a pitiable, hopeless 
and shameful state of servility merely in order that 
there may be maintained in our country a self-im- 
posed, arrogant and un-American aristocracy of un- 
restrained wealth such as has brought upon Europe 
the frightful cataclysm which now prevails? We 
are not. 

No people, throughout the world's history since 
satan inspired some inhuman monster to inaugurate 
the custom of charging interest for the use of money, 
have ever been in anything like so strong a position 
for overcoming the wrongful power of amassed 

248 



PROGRESS 249 

wealth as are the American people today — and they 
know it. They know themselves to be a great people, 
capable of great achievement; and they know that 
whenever given an opportunity to rise above the 
contemptible little partisan strife which has kept 
them confused, befogged and divided, they will rise 
to the occasion and unite quickly and courageously. 
And Nationalism is that opportunity. 

Be not appalled at the immensity of the insti- 
tutions to be completely reformed or abolished by 
this great enterprise. They have become too mas- 
sive, too all-absorbing, too burdensome, to be longer 
endured. Take them all together, they are not one- 
half so firmly established in the affections of the peo- 
ple, one-half so strongly fortified, or one-half so well 
entrenched, as formerly were the human slavery evil 
and the saloon evil, — bad as they were. And Lo! 
look what has happened to them. 

The one thing that is infinitely bigger and of 
vastly greater importance than everything else in 
this country is the welfare of the masses of the 



250 PROGRESS 

people. Nothing short of God himself is big enough, 
or strong enough, or wealthy enough, to stand long 
in its way; and any institution, however large; or 
any custom, however long established; which does 
not plainly make for that end is positively doomed 
to go. There can be no question about that. 

The degree of erudition which has been so la- 
boriously acquired by the American people, com- 
bined with the wonderful power of reasoning which 
they naturally possess, have developed a faculty oi 
discernment and understanding which will no longer 
be restrained in a mere potential state by a miser- 
able little job-hunting political situation such as has 
heretofore prevailed. Blinded by their eagerness to 
plunge their snouts deeply into the public trough, and 
deceived by the lack of popularity of Socialism, the 
political leaders of the present apparently fail to 
recognize that faculty, and seem to believe that one 
or the other of the two dominant political parties will 
be continued in power indefinitely, despite the in- 
sufficiency of their principles, and regardless of their 
failures. 



PROGRESS 251 

BUT THE BIG PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL- 
ISM NOW PROVIDE A MEDIUM BY WHICH 
THAT DEGREE OF ERUDITION, THAT POWER 
OF REASONING, THAT FACULTY OF DISCERN- 
MENT AND UNDERSTANDING, WILL BE 
TRANSFORMED INTO AN AVALANCHE OF 
KINETIC FORCE, CAPABLE OF OVERWHELM- 
ING ALL OPPOSITION. 

Nationalism is based upon the only combina- 
tion of principles big and strong enough to form 
a sound foundation upon which to reform the nations 
now engaged in the European war. It has re- 
quired an awful war to force a reformation upon 
those nations. Let we Americans have the wisdom 
to profit by their experience and accomplish our 
own reformation before a like cataclysm is visited 
upon us. 

Having read "Progress," if you believe that 
in its chapters leading up to the adoption of the 
new constitution it describes a condition in any 
considerable degree parallel with existing conditions 



252 PROGRESS 

in our own country, then you must perforce admit 
that a continuance of the institutions which have 
brought those conditions upon us must inevitably 
quickly force our people down into the frightful 
condition of the people of the older civilizations of 
Europe. Yea, even to the ruinous depths to which 
the people of China, of India, of Egypt, have long 
been submerged. Moreover, if you so believe, you 
must admit that the remedy which "Progress" sug- 
gests is the only remedy big, and bold, and strong, 
and practical enough to effect a satisfactory cure. 

Why not then quickly align yourself with the 
force that is going to apply the remedy? 

Without the "Nationalist Party," there is not a 
party before the people, nor an individual in public 
life, which or who is even advocating any principle 
which bears any semblance of being an acceptable, 
practical and efficacious remedy for the evil condi- 
tions which are destroying us — and you know it. 

Under a federal constitution which was conceived 
and established by a generation of men who could 



PROGRESS 253 

not possibly have had any accurate conception of the 
conditions of life as they exist today, — and which 
constitution at best was but a weak compromise be- 
tween a then existing aristocracy of wealth, and 
the people — we have for an hundred and thirty 
years been vigorously and assiduously applying the 
instruments so provided in a vain endeavor to avert 
the very condition which is now upon us, and we 
have failed utterly and miserably. If this be true, 
— and it is true — why, then, in all reason and com- 
mon sense, should we perpetuate an instrument which 
has proven itself almost wholly inadequate for its 
purpose? 

How much progress think you the world would 
have made if, because it already possessed and was 
accustomed to the ancient implements and customs, 
it had refused to adopt democracy in any degree, or 
to adopt the use of fire, of metals, of steam power, 
of the printing press, the cotton gin, the sewing 
machine, electricity, motor driven vehicles, etcetera? 

The time is due and conditions are full ripe for 



254 PROGRESS 

the most gigantic upward stride mankind yet has 
taken. Let us then as intelligent creatures, strug- 
gling upward from an ocean of difficulty; for the 
sake of ourselves, our families, our homes and our 
friends ; for the sake of all that the name "America" 
stands for; for the sake of posterity; for the sake 
of our religion; for the sake of God, get together 
on the broad basis of "Nationalism" for the supreme 
purpose of accomplishing that stride and preventing 
a complete miscarriage of the hope of the founders 
of our country, and of the plan of God Almighty. 

II. 

If so be you are the possessor of large wealth, 
and if it so be that you are also possessed of that 
degree of sympathy, of honesty, of conscience, of 
justice, which entitles you to any consideration at 
the hands of mankind, then you must admit that 
notwithstanding the law and custom tolerate such 
practice, you have no right under Heaven, above 
hell, or upon the earth, to use that wealth as an 



PROGRESS 255 

instrument for plundering the people of the products 
of their toil and industry, or for the oppression of 
your kind. You must admit that constitutions, laws, 
customs or conditions which make such practices 
necessary to the accumulation and preservation of 
wealth are fundamentally wrong and should not 
be perpetuated. 

Nationalism affords you a splendid opportunity 
to obviate such unrighteous and inhuman necessity. 
Nationalism will not hurt you. On the contrary, its 
adoption will open to you the greatest commercial and 
industrial field for the safe, sane and profitable em- 
ployment of your capital man has ever entered upon. 
To the maximum limit compatible with the safety 
of humanity, the nation, and yourself, it will provide 
you, in the possession and enjoyment of your wealth, 
a safe protection against those forces which now prey 
upon you. A protection infinitely more safe than 
you now enjoy. 

Nationalists neither envy nor covet your wealth, 
but they do purpose to summarily deprive it of its 



256 PROGRESS 

omnipotent power of extortion and oppression. 
Knowing your wealth to be but the inevitable result 
of evil systems, they have no grievance against you, 
either as an individual or class. The grievance lies 
against the systems which have made possible — per- 
haps necessary — the grievous oppression which is 
destroying a great people. Nationalists believe in 
individual, group and community achievement, and 
in the right of the individual, group or community 
to enjoy the fruits of success, but they deny the 
right of the individual, group or community to ac- 
complish success to the detriment of the general pub- 
lic welfare. 

Many of you, in the greatness of your souls, 
are maintaining vast charities throughout the world 
in order to in some measure alleviate the awful 
havoc wrought upon humanity by the systems. In 
God's name take up Nationalism as an instrument 
for raising mankind above the necessity for such 
charities. It will prove effectual. 



PROGRESS 257 

III. 

If it so be that you are the possessor of moderate 
wealth, or are a manufacturer, a merchant, a member 
of some profession, a banker, a scientist, an artist, 
a successful agriculturalist or stockman, or have 
achieved that degree of success in any vocation which 
constitutes you a member of that intermediate 
stratum of society commonly called the middle class, 
Nationalism affords you a glorious opportunity to 
escape forever from the power of those forces which 
have always so shamelessly preyed upon you, and 
which have made your success exceedingly difficult 
to accomplish and so little worth while when achieved. 

If you are of this numerous middle class, why 
should you be content to remain a mere tool in the 
hands of certain big interests, for their harvesting 
of the products of the toilers and producers? You 
owe it to yourself and your progeny to help humanity 
get into a position whereby such effort as it con- 
tributes toward the world's progress will redound 
to the benefit of the whole race, instead of to the 



258 PROGRESS 

sole benefit of a self -selected few, to be by them 
sinfully squandered and shamefully wasted. 

The adoption of Nationalism will not hurt you. 
On the contrary, it will provide you a perfect safe- 
guard in the possession and enjoyment of such wealth 
as you possess and such success as you may attain. 
Under existing conditions you have absolutely no 
safeguard — and you know it — and so are living in 
constant dread and fear. And well may you live in 
constant dread and fear, with the systems ever and 
ever plunging a monstrous hell of poverty deeper 
and deeper into your ranks. The current period of 
high-cost-living — 1916-17 — will inevitably bring dread- 
ful poverty upon vastly more of you in two years 
than have ever before succumbed to poverty in any 
decade of the world's history. Why should you, as 
intelligent Americans, submit to such an awful af- 
fliction? 

Do not presume that, because you may be enjoy- 
ing some measure of success and prosperity, you are 
a favorite of the Gods. You may be only as the 



PROGRESS 259 

goat used to lead his kind to destruction. Unless 
Nationalism prevails, you or your beneficiaries some 
day will stand aghast at the audacity and impunity 
with which the systems will crimple your success 
and absorb the substance of your prosperity. 

The adoption of Nationalism will almost immed- 
iately bring upon our country a most astounding 
era of progress and prosperity/ There is no ques- 
tion about it. An era of progress and prosperity 
vastly exceeding anything the world has ever exper- 
ienced. An era during which you, your endeavors 
and your pogeny will progress and prosper beyond 
your fondest dreams. An era during which such 
success as you accomplish will redound to the benefit 
of yourself and your race, and will not be detrimental 
to any individual or class. 

Nationalism affords you an opportunity to help 
overthrow all that is bad in existing political and 
economic conditions. Assert your intelligence, your 
independence, your manhood or womanhood, and vin- 
dicate your Americanism, by grasping it boldly, 
firmly, tenaciously. 



260 PROGRESS 

IV. 

If it so be that you are one of that vast host of 
small manufacturers, small tradespeople, lesser poli- 
ticians, small land or home owners, tenant farmers, 
schemers, artisans, salaried people, wage earners, 
toilers, moilers, tillers, grubbers and diggers, who con- 
stitute the so-called lower class, then Nationalism 
affords you that haven of safe refuge which you and 
your ancestors have so hopefully and diligently, 
though vainly, sought throughout the ages. 

You intelligent, independent and courageous 
Americans who may at any time be called upon to 
lay down your lives in defense of the institutions 
of your country, yet like a lot of downtrodden orien- 
tals stand meekly by and suffer those institutions to 
audaciously take the turkey off your Thanksgiving- 
day dinner tables ; force you to subsist on an inferior 
diet consisting of the wretched husks off your own 
products; force you to wear clothes far inferior to 
those you yourself produce; force you to stay in in- 
ferior dwellings; deny your children a reasonable 



PROGRESS 261 

education; force you into a condition of general hu- 
man misery and desperation. You who are dumbly 
suffering your homes and businesses to be outrag- 
eously plundered and cruelly buffeted about at the 
will of an exacting landlord system. How much 
deeper in the dregs of life are you going to permit 
those institutions to submerge you? Break away 
from the mistaken or deceitful advocates of a false 
Republicanism, a false Democratism, a false Socialism. 
Take up Nationalism earnestly and enthusiastically 
and thereby quickly raise yourselves up out of this 
deplorable bog of American decadence. 

You are not an unintelligent, illiterate, utterly 
subdued mass to be stricken dumb by the glamour 
of amassed wealth, or to be overawed and para- 
lyzed by the pomp and circumstance of a flagitious 
political oligarchy. You are an intelligent, enlight- 
ened, free and enfranchised people, endowed with a 
right of franchise which gives you absolute power 
to rule over your country and govern yourselves. You 
are due to assert that power and seize that rule. 



262 PROGRESS 

Believe not that you can escape the ravages of 
the systems by, ostrich-like, hiding your heads in 
the sands of fraternalism, of insurance, of unionism, 
of charity, of the church. Notwithstanding you 
have for generations resorted to those refuges, the 
systems have plucked you bare. Those shelters, 
though in some part perhaps helpful, will not avail 
you. Nationalism is your one hope, your only safe 
refuge. 

Lay ye not down in a dense and stifling fog of 
self-pity, bewailing the awful hell the systems have 
brought upon you. Rise up and take a bold stand 
in the bright light of Nationalism and thereby crowd 
the systems off God's footstool into a sea of oblivion. 

Be not alarmed at Nationalism because it is big, 
bold, sweeping, practical and revolutionary. Those 
are its strong features. That is why it will quickly 
become popular and effectual. Anything less big, 
bold, sweeping, practical and revolutionary would 
but lead to miserable failure. 

Fear not Nationalism because it emanates from 



PROGRESS 263 

an humble source. That is another of its strong 
features. Many of the greatest events in the world's 
history have had an humble origin. For ages the 
world has been following the dictates of those high in 
place. One has but to note the awful condition of 
the masses of the people throughout the world today 
to recognize the utter folly of that policy. It is 
high time that the people of the several nations should 
take government into their own hands and follow 
the dictates of their own minds. Nationalism em- 
bodies the only practical plan of government which 
will enable them to do so. 

Nationalism is no graft. Neither is it the in- 
strument of any ambition other than the laudable 
ambition of a great people to obtain political and 
economic supremacy. It is not a pitfall set before 
you by some self-seeking individual, interest, or class 
high in place, in order to entangle you in further 
difficulties. 

NATIONALISM IS A CLEAN, BROAD, SOUND, 
STRAIGHT, SAFE, RIGHTEOUS, GODLY HIGH- 



264 PROGRESS 

WAY, INFRINGING ON NO JUST RIGHTS, OVER 
WHICH HUMANITY MAY LAWFULLY, SAFELY, 
SANELY AND SPEEDILY PROCEED TO THAT 
GLORIOUS GOAL OF UNSELFISH PERFECT 
LIFE IT SO LONG HAS VAINLY SOUGHT. GET 
THIS FACT FIRMLY FIXED IN YOUR MIND, 
AND THEN LET NO SPOUTING DEMAGOGUE 
OR CAVILLING SYCHOPHANT MISGUIDE YOU. 
GET YOURSELF UPON THIS BROAD HIGHWAY 
NOW, WHILE THERE STILL REMAINS IN YOUR 
SOUL A FAINT SPARK OF THE AMERICAN 
SPIRIT OF 1776, AND WHILE THE GHOST OF 
AMERICAN LIBERTY YET TARRIES WITH US. 
A GENERATION HENCE MAY BE TOO LATE. 
THAT SPARH WILL THEN HAVE BEEN EN- 
TIRELY QUENCHED, AND THAT GHOST WILL 
THEN HAVE UTTERLY FADED AWAY. 

V. 

Choose ye which it shall be; an organized an- 
archy of unbridled wealth and an unorganized an- 



PROGRESS 265 

archy of outraged and desperate people on the one 
hand; or a reasonably controlled wealth sensibly 
governed by a busy, prosperous and contented mul- 
titude on the other. 

Regardless of your station in life, your circum- 
stances, your vocation, your political faith, or your 
religion, Nationalism should appeal strongly to your 
reason, your common sense, your sense of justice, 
your love of fair play. 

Raise yourself above that unworthy, inhuman, 
fiendish craving for the acquirement of colossal 
wealth regardless of whom it may injure. The adop- 
tion of Nationalism will make possible the acquisition 
of reasonable wealth without injury, and make its 
possession infinitely more secure. 

Raise yourself above that miserable little un- 
manly, un-American fear of your job. The adoption of 
Nationalism will quickly bring about a condition 
whereuhder thousands of lucrative jobs will always be 
eagerly seeking for men, instead of millions of needy 
men humbly seeking for jobs. A condition where- 



266 PROGRESS 

under every valid business will increase and prosper 
beyond your wildest dreams. 

Raise yourself above any despicable little two 
by four political ambition you may have. If you 
are an honest, sincere, energetic, capable worker, 
in every way worthy of public preferment, Nation- 
alism affords you an opportunity for the most exalted 
political career the world has ever known. 

Patriotism is the love of one's country and the 
life that therein exists. The systems now in effect 
in America both abuse America and injure American 
life. But however ill our economic situation may 
be, let us patriotically defend our government against 
foreign foes, and at the same time strive earnestly 
to remedy our internal difficulties. 

You have long known by all that menaces you 
that something will have to be done to revolutionize 
the political and economic situation in America. 
Nationalism Is It. 

If you have a tiny spark of Americanism left 
in your heart. If you have any slumbering coals 



PROGRESS 267 

of patriotism left in your soul. If you have any 
tiny, flickering flame of fighting blood left in your 
body. Grasp the bellows of your manhood or woman- 
hood and blow those elements into a fierce, sweep- 
ing, flaming, flaring, all-illuminating conflagration 
of enthusiastic Nationalism. 

Proclaim Nationalism at every opportunity. 

Proclaim yourself a Nationalist. 

Register yourself as a Nationalist. 

Vote as a Nationalist. 

. Wait not to ascertain what your compatriots may 
do in the matter. The fight is yours, be unafraid. 
Get yourself into it. Your compatriots will join 
you. There can be no question as to your victory if 
you but assert yourself and fight manfully. 

Communicate with 

THE NATIONALIST WEEKLY, 

Oklahoma City, Okla. 



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